Gok Wan: The nice TV stylist 

Source: Gok Wan

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Gok Wan is the man that's taught women how to look good naked and love themselves.

Gok, as he is affectionately known to people all over the world, first hit the big time with his show How to Look Good Naked - the fashion series that shows viewers how to look fantastic with clothes on or off, no matter what body shape, and all without a surgeon's scalpel in sight.

In New Zealand to show off his new line of glasses, he caught up with Close Up for some tips on eyeware, some insight into what motivates him and why women trust and listen to him.

Gok on glasses

Around half of the global population wear glasses and Gok says the fashion industry has grabbed onto that fact in the last few years and turned an accessory that, at one time was the ultimate sign of geekdom, into a fashion must have.

"About four or five years ago the whole fashion scene changed. Geek became chic and glasses had a massive renaissance.

"Every single high street fashion store is selling fake glasses - they've become so on-trend and so fashionable."

Gok's tip on choosing the right pair of glasses: Choose glasses that suit your personality as well as balance your face shape and features.

Gok on being the 'Mr Nice Guy' of fashion makeover television

Known as TV's Mr Nice Guy in the UK (though he is still honest with his clients), he says his fashion philosophy - not insulting your clients and seeing the beauty in everyone - is one he has carried over from his many years as as a stylist before the television gig came along.

"I've worked as a stylist for 14 years now, 10 years before I was on camera I was dressing famous people and if I went up there and said 'sweetheart you're gorgeous but your boobs are far too big, your bum's too small and you're never going to fit in that dress' she'd never book me again."

Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder, it's universal

Gok says there is no-one he wouldn't work with (he's styled size 4s and size 32s) and he truly believes all women are beautiful.

"I truly believe that image is 10% clothing and it's 90% who you are as a person."

Gok on his own body battles

One of the things that makes Gok so accessible to women with body issues is that he suffered them himself. The svelte stylist once weighed 21 stone (134kgs) thanks to a childhood spent in restaurants and eating food as a favourite pastime.

"Basically I could cook a big bowl of chow mein before I could walk.

"Food was a massive part of my life so as I grew up I ate, and ate, and ate."

He says the weight he used to carry has partly allowed him to do the job he does.

"When i'm talking to a woman about how they feel about their bodies ... my lack of self-esteem and self-confidence when I was growing up and my own body issues allows me to really empathise with the women."

Sharing his opinion

Gok has his theories on why women take fashion and style advice from a gay man.

"I think i'm not a threat. There is no sexual confrontation ... I can also be brutally honest, I think the gay language allows people to be frank ... and I have one objective - to get this person from hating her body and looking downright horrible, all the way to loving her body and strutting her stuff on a catwalk with clothes, or without."

But though he gives his opinion freely on television, to people who have asked to hear it, the one thing Gok says he wouldn't do is offer that opinion unsolicited.

"I don't have any human right whatsoever to walk into someone's life and say 'right. I'm the big I Am and i'm a fashion stylist and i'm on television, i'm going to tell you how you look.' I have no right to do that at all."

It is exactly that attitude that makes Gok Wan so popular. And so for some parting advice from him about attitude ... "regardless of whether you're a size 10 or 22 it's all about how we wear our clothes - our clothes must never wear us."

You can catch Gok's latest show Gok's Fashion Fix on TV ONE, Friday's at 7.30pm or catch up for free with TVNZ ondemand.