Man Makeovers

Men of America, it's time to say goodbye to pleated pants, dad jeans, your high school sweatshirts and to promise never to mix shorts and tube socks again. Project Runway mentor and Liz Claiborne chief creative officer Tim Gunn is here to reveal the ugly truth about men's fashion faux pas. "Men have no excuse," he says. "It's so much easier for us."

Watch Tim meet his makeover candidates.

When it comes to style, Tim says most men suffer from arrested development. "Women have a fervor for fashion. They know that they need to be updated, and they're very aware of what's going on," he says. "Men get a look that they're comfortable with and they simply stay there."

As a result, Tim says most men make bad choices. "Men wear clothes that are too big for them," he says. "Silhouette, proportion and fit are our friends, and they will serve us well."

Larry's a rocker who dresses like he did when Guns N' Roses topped the charts. His daily uniform is a leather jacket, and he shaves half his head, wearing the longer half in a ponytail.

Tim wants to help Larry leave the '80s behind. "Talk about woeful," he says. "I will say this, though. Larry was working a rocker look, and he really is a rocker. He belongs to a band, so at least there's an excuse."

Like so many great acts of the '80s, Larry reinvents himself with Tim's guidance, a close shave and a haircut. "We have a classic turtleneck that will never go out of style," Tim says. "We have a dress pant—but in leather. So it was a way of tipping our hat to the rocker aspect and giving Larry a cleaned up, polished, fabulous look. And who would want to revert back when you look like this?"

Larry says his new look rocks. "It's very different, for sure. Exact opposite," he says. "But I like it, and I might try to stick with this."

Pants: John Bartlett, JohnBartlettNY.com; sweater: Nordstrom.com; jacket: Nordstrom.com; belt: Nordstrom.com; boots: Nordstrom.com

Josh used to be a clean-cut guy. Now, his girlfriend, Heidi, says he looks like a caveman. "Once I left the military, I started growing my hair and quit shaving," he says.

No longer in the service, this 38-year-old has created his own daily uniform—a white T-shirt, jeans and work boots. "Josh dresses like the Fonz," Heidi says.

His mission, should he choose to accept it, is a makeover from Tim. "I dare you the make me look better than I do right now," Josh says.

Tim took Josh's dare. "Before he was Grizzly Adams as a prophet," Tim says.

The first thing Tim did was take Josh to the salon. "In working with all these gentlemen, I never want to make anyone into my dress-up doll. It was all about respecting who they are at their core and making them better, enhancing them," he says. "Frankly, I didn't want to take Josh's beard completely off."

Tim also brought Josh's look from Happy Days to modern day with stylish boots, a pair of jeans with a good fit, an updated leather jacket, a sweater and a classic dress shirt. "I feel like a new man," Josh says.

Shirt: Armani; sweater: John W. Nordstrom, Nordstrom.com; jacket: Alexander Brown, Nordstrom.com; pants: AG Adriano Goldschmied, Nordstrom.com; shoes: Donald Pilner in espresso

Daniel's another guy who dresses like it's 1985—and he has the mullet, ripped jeans and concert T-shirts to prove it. "He's been wearing the same hairstyle since junior high school," Tim says. "He's a 43-year-old man."

Tim takes Daniel from garage band to rocker chic. "I didn't want to remove the rocker altogether, so we have something very unexpected in this classically tailored jacket and the fact that it's aubergine," Tim says. "It would have been easy to go to black, but we wanted to give him some punch.

Daniel's mullet is history, which he says was hard to let go. "The idea is definitely growing on me," Daniel says. "I feel amazing. Definitely a confidence booster."

Jacket: Hugo Boss, Nordstrom.com; shirt: Robert Graham, Nordstrom.com; belt: Robert Graham, Nordstrom.com; boots: Lounge by Mark Nason, style 71799; sunglasses: Nordstrom.com

When Tim's makeover team met Jason at a local hardware store, they stopped dead in their tracks. Underneath those baggy, hole-filled overalls is a makeover dream. "To be honest, I thought, 'This is a Halloween costume,'" Tim says.

With his long, bleached goatee, tattered cowboy hat and oversize clothes, Jason has fallen victim to what Tim calls the comfort trap."I call it the slobification of America," he says. "And we must stop it."

With Hollywood men's grooming expert Diana Schmidtke's help, Tim takes Jason from "farmer in the dell" to Kenny Chesney.

Before changing Jason's look, Tim says he used the Socratic Method to find out what Jason envisioned for himself. "[I had] a Q&A with Jason about how he sees himself and who his own style mentors are," he says. "We got to Tim McGraw and the country western aspects and using a classically tailored jacket with a nod to western wear with the western yoke and, of course, a pair of jeans that fit and a great cowboy boot that he loves." Tim also swapped Jason's ratty straw hat with a sleek cowboy hat.

Jason says he feels fantastic. "You wouldn't believe the looks I always got," he says.

"For all the wrong reasons," Tim says.

Boots: Alcalas.com; hat: Alcalas.com; jacket: Alcalas.com; belt buckle: Alcalas.com; T-shirt: Calvin Klein, Nordstrom.com; collared shirt: Dolce & Gabbana, Nordstrom.com; belt: Remo Tulliani, Nordstrom.com

Here's a tip when it comes to jeans: Saggy butts don't look good on anyone. Firefighter Adam hasn't bought a pair in five years. He's camouflaging a small butt and a 32-inch waist with his supersize jeans.

Thanks to a new pair of jeans, Adam's rear is front and center once again. "In a pair of jeans, you need to be age appropriate. If you're over 25, none of this distressing and tearing," he says. "You want a darker wash because it allows you to go more places, and you want a great fit."

But Tim's team wanted to bring out more of Adam's best features. "We did a little [hair]dying because we wanted there to be a little more of a difference between Adam's original haircolor and his skin," Tim says. "When he came back I said, 'They dyed your hair to match your eyebrows.' And he said, 'No, they dyed my eyebrows too.'"

"As Tim would say, I think we're making it work," Adam says.

Jeans: Nordstrom.com; shoes: Too Boot NY, Nordstrom.com; shirt: Hugo Boss; vest: Neil Barrett; tie: Dolce & Gabbana, Nordstrom.com

Aaron's "dad jeans" are bad enough—but it's his sweater collection that really has to go. "I have a lot of sweaters, like Bill Cosby," he says. "I got one for my birthday and from that point on, I've been getting sweaters and sweaters. I have about 15 sweaters like that."

Watch Tim confront Aaron about his sweater stash

Oversize sweaters with loud patterns may have defined Bill Cosby's style, but Tim says that was a different era. Aaron's new sweater has polish and sophistication. "It doesn't mean a patterned sweater can't work—just not that pattern," Tim says. "Go with something classic like an argyle."

Tim also updated Aaron's look by shaving his mustache and convincing him to lose his pleated pants. "It was all he was wearing," Tim says. "You look slimmer in these pants."

T-shirt: Calvin Klein, Nordstrom.com; sweater: Nordstrom.com; jacket: Faconnable, Nordstrom.com; pants: Zanella, Nordstrom.com; shoes: Dolce & Gabbana, Nordstrom.com

In 1990, Russell got an Oprah Show makeover. After his wife, Dijohna, complained that Russell only wore work shirts and baseball caps, the show gave him this look. "This was at a time when we clearly will still working out the kinks in our makeover department," Oprah says. "So I would like to take this moment to personally apologize to you for that. For the layers, the socks, the rolled up thing, the man purse, the whole thing."

In fact, Russell's wife says she used Russell's man bag as a diaper bag once they got home.

Now, Oprah wants a chance to make things right by having Tim give Russell a look he'll love.

Tim turns Russell's '90s fashion nightmare into a dream come true with a sharp, striped suit. "How do you like me now?" Russell says. "I love it."

Suit: Zaharoff; shirt: Ike Behar, Nordstrom.com; belt: Hugo Boss; tie: Zegna; pocket scarf: Santorelli

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