IDK about you, but I absolutely adore Tan France. Not only is he funny and kind on Queer Eye, but he makes me feel like we’d be BFFs — he just doesn’t know it yet!
“I was raised in a really religious household — my family’s Muslim — and so, I was often wearing modest clothing. But my grandparents owned a denim factory, and they would make denim products for Disney,” he said.
“And I was like, ‘Okay. I’m only wearing Asian clothes at home. I have access to Western clothes here.’ So, I would help out at the factory, damage some stuff on purpose so that I could keep those items, and I would style them at home.”
Tan became an incredible sewer between the ages of 7 and 13, with a mission to make himself and his family members feel good with clothing. “In my opinion, clothes hold so much power. Fashion holds so much power.”
He shared something hilarious he recently learned about his grandparents’ old factory.
“So, I say that my family was making denim for Disney. And then, I wrote a book a Couple years ago, and my sister read the book. She was like, ‘You’ve gotta stop telling that story publicly.’ And I was like, ‘Why? What on Earth is wrong?’ And she said, ‘You were too young to remember that grandad wasn’t making denim products for Disney. We were knocking off Disney.'”
“So, we were selling knockoff Disney items. And I was wearing them to school so proudly.”
“The funny thing is I went on talk shows talking about how we were making products for Disney, so Disney flew me out to have this amazing experience at Disneyland. I was too nervous to say, ‘Oh no, we stole from you! All these years, we were stealing from you!'”