Make no mistake: Having your own catchphrase isn't easy. "People come up and say, 'It's my friend's birthday. Can you call her cell phone and say, 'Make it work'?" says Project Runway star Tim Gunn, who made the directive famous on the show. "I've left messages for people saying, 'This is Tim Gunn. Make it work!' It's a little strange, but I'm happy to do it."

He's similarly pleased with where life has taken him of late. Since becoming the breakout star on Runway in '04, Gunn, 53, has made fans of everyone from the guy (and girl) on the street to celebs like Zach Braff—who stopped him at this year's Golden Globes to impersonate him. ("It was hilarious," says Gunn.) He's even earned his own bobblehead doll. "I keep thinking I should put it on my shoulder like a parrot," he says, "and have a Mini-Me."

With everything Gunn—former chair of the fashion design department at New York City's Parsons the New School for Design—has on his plate, a clone might come in handy. Named chief creative officer at Liz Claiborne Inc. in March, a position he calls "part sounding board, part truth teller, part therapist" for the company's 350 designers, the reality star also coauthored Tim Gunn: A Guide to Quality, Taste & Style with Parsons pal Kate Moloney, out this month. And Bravo recently announced plans for Tim Gunn's Guide to Style, a makeover show for women he'll host this fall. "With all this happening after I turned 50, I have a great appreciation for it," says Gunn. His mom would second that. "When I told her I'd be on Runway, she said, 'You? You're so old!'" he says. "I keep pinching myself and saying I'm the luckiest guy in the world."

He didn't always feel it. The son of George William Gunn, a Washington, D.C., FBI administrator (and J. Edgar Hoover's ghostwriter), and his wife, Nancy, who helped create the CIA's library, Gunn says he was a shy, studious kid. "I was solitary, but I was never lonely. I just loved being in my room with my Legos." His relationship with his father, who died in 1995, was strained. "He loved me, but I knew that I wasn't quite the son he wanted; he really wanted a football jock. So I kind of resigned myself to not knowing him that well. It doesn't mean it didn't hurt—it did."

It wasn't until he took a drawing class at age 19 that he realized his creative gift. "I felt a liberation," he says. "Because the answer wasn't in the book. It was in me. It was more compelling than anything I'd ever done."

After graduating from Corcoran College of Art and Design, Gunn built models for architectural firms. He joined Parsons in '83, rising to become fashion design department chair in 2000 and generating buzz for future stars Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough of Proenza Schouler. Bravo heard the buzz and came calling. Though he agreed to consult for a season, Gunn says he had no idea he would make it to the air. "I thought, 'This could end up being about the sexual escapades of the designers, not what happened in the workroom,'" he says, laughing. "There could have been no reason to have me on the show."

Now there'd be no Runway without him. Though his 16-hour days don't leave much room for a personal life, Gunn isn't complaining. "I'd have to give something up to have a relationship, and I don't want to." He pauses. "I'm having the best time of my life."