The TV star on how the makeover show changed his look – and why he steers clear of a ‘basic’ black tux

This is the Thom Browne suit I wore to the Primetime Emmy awards [where Queer Eye won outstanding structured reality programme] in 2018. I wanted something that was going to read well on stage and Thom Browne does really interesting suiting. He makes everything tight and short, which is meant to look shrunken – but on me, it’s just perfectly tailored.

The Queer Eye guys and I don’t co-ordinate our outfits, we all do our own thing, but it’s weird the number of times we’ve all turned up wearing the same colour story. At the Emmys, we weren’t coordinated at all. No conversations were had about what we were wearing; we all like to surprise each other.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness, Bobby Berk, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Karamo Brown at the 2018 Primetime Emmy awards. Photograph: Matt Baron/REX/Shutterstock

On the red carpet, I really do push myself to look different from how I do anywhere else, to show that fashion doesn’t always have to be so conservative. It’s not just to stand out, but to show that men can have fun with fashion, too. I think a black tux is fine but there are so many other options – why go for basic? I love that we didn’t look like most other men on the red carpet. I made a few best-dressed lists in this suit and my Instagram likes were wonderful that day.

I’m much more comfortable in casual clothes and, actually, I don’t dress up a lot. A red-carpet look is usually not as cosy. My personal style is always evolving, but I like to remain relatively classic. Queer Eye has changed my look a lot because I have to come up with something new each season; I feel as if I’m growing and my style’s not remaining stagnant.

The clothes I wear on the show are pretty much what I wear every day. There are a few exceptions – I don’t wear as many prints on a daily basis, they are so that you can always see me easily on a screen. The belted sweatshirt [from season three] was one of my favourite looks, but I wouldn’t wear that to Tesco.

Naturally Tan: A Memoir by Tan France is published by Penguin, RRP £16.99 (Guardian Bookshop price, £14.95).