Tanveer Wasim "Tan" France is an English-American fashion designer, television personality, and author. He became "one of the very first openly gay South Asian men on a major show", and one of the first openly gay Muslim men on western television, as the fashion expert for the Netflix series Queer Eye, host of the web series Dressing Funny, and co-host of Next In Fashion. His memoir, Naturally Tan was released in June 2019.
Early life
Tanveer "Tan" Wasim Safdar was born and raised in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England, to Muslim Pakistani parents. In his memoir, France has discussed how he felt alienated due to his experience of growing up in a strict Muslim household where homosexuality was viewed negatively, the lack of representation in media of his community and of LGBTQ South Asian people in particular, and his personal experiences of physical and verbal racism in his childhood and adult life. France said "our home wasn't super religious but we had a profound connection to our Muslim heritage." France’s interest in fashion began at a young age, inspired by the Disney clothing that was made in his grandparents' denim factory in Bury, England where he spent time working. By age thirteen, he had learned how to construct and embellish a denim jacket. In 2019, he allegedly learned that his grandfather had to close the factory due to the products being Disney knockoffs. France attended Hall Cross School and later Doncaster College, where he studied fashion, after which he moved to Manchester, and then to London.
Career
After graduating from college, France began to work as designer and director for Zara, Selfridges and Bershka, among other retailers, to further improve his knowledge of the wholesale business of retail; he later went on to work at Chanel in order to learn more about manufacturing. He started in menswear and later progressed in womenswear, where he majored on his fashion degree. France began working in the United States in 2008, initially living in NYC, and emigrated to the US in 2015. France was company director at Shade Clothing before he opened his solo fashion company in 2011, called Kingdom & State. The brand included clothing designed to meet Mormon clothing guidelines, a group that represented a significant population in Utah, where France was living. He later created two smaller apparel brands. France's designs were purchased by retailers ModCloth and Forever 21. The designs were displayed on the website and stores under the brand name for many years. In 2016 he later became co-founder, fashion designer and CEO for the Rachel Parcell Inc clothing line, which was sold at Nordstrom. After selling his businesses, France officially retired, but he was later contacted by Netflix. This started his journey as a media person through his role as the fashion expert on Queer Eye which premiered in February 2018. In 2019, France appeared in the music video for Taylor Swift's song "You Need to Calm Down. " He also appeared in 2020 in a special charity edition of The Great British Bake Off to raise funds for Stand Up To Cancer. That year it was also announced that France would be co-hosting the new Netflix series Next In Fashion with Alexa Chung. In an interview with the ITV programme This Morning, and NPR, France disclosed that he had sold all three of his businesses after starting work for Netflix. In 2019 he designed an eye wear line by partering up with EyeBuyDirect. Since 2019 he's GQ Middle East official columnist, From 2020 he's Express monthly stylist.
Personal life
Tan currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his husband, pediatric nurse and illustrator Rob France. He released a memoir, Naturally Tan, in June 2019 through St. Martin's Press. France has a deep love for cooking and especially baking. He learned how to cook and sew at age nine. France was naturalized as a US citizen on June 9, 2020 after "working towards" it for twenty years. He kept his British citizenship, making him a dual citizen of both countries. In September 2019, France, who is vocal about the colorism, racism and Islamophobia he has endured throughout his life, created an Instagram account called "Shaded", where he promotes black people, people of colour and cultural diversity.
Books
France released a memoir, Naturally Tan, in June 2019 through St. Martin's Press. It became a NYT best seller. It is about his experience growing up "gay in a traditional Muslim family, as one of the few people of colour in Doncaster, England". The memoir starts with Tan's childhood in England where episodes of racism were an everyday occurrence, like having to run back to school to avoid getting beat up by racist thugs. The book follows up with heavy topics such as colourism within the South Asian community and the Islamophobia he faced before and after the 9/11 attacks. For more lighthearted episodes of Tan's life he describes his first trip to NYC, how he started his brands, how he got involved in fashion, and how he fell in love with his husband, everything peppered with notions about fashion.
