Tan France is a reality television personality best known for being a fashion expert on the Netflix series Queer Eye. He founded a women’s clothing line called Kingdom & State.
He was born on 20 April 1983 in Doncaster, England, as Tanweer Wasin Safdar to Pakistani parents. He is currently 38 years old.
He became interested in clothes at a young age, inspired by the clothing made in his grandparents’ factory for Disney. Now he has become a better fashion designer himself. Please find out more about him here!
Tan France Got Trolled Over A Baby Announcement
Tan France opened about the “really horrible” messages he received after his baby announcement in his social media accounts.
He told Us Weekly magazine: “I posted the announcement, and we were inundated with beautiful, beautiful messages. But 5 percent, maybe 3 percent, were really horrible. And it was, basically like, ‘This is terrible you’re doing this. Babies should only be conceived naturally.’”
He believes that there’s a lack of understanding around the surrogacy process, which likely fed into the more upsetting comments. He explained: “People seemed to think that I was kidnapping the lady, raping her and trapping [her] in my basement, tying her to a radiator until she had my baby.” Tan was keen to assert that, of course, that “couldn’t be further from the truth.”
The star was also shocked at how “superficial” people can be when it comes to choosing a surrogate. He said: “The amount of people who have asked how attractive is she, I couldn’t care less. ‘Did you go for something that looks like a supermodel?’ Couldn’t care less. That is not important."
“You never know what you’re going to get, just because you have two people who are attractive, does not mean that your child is going to be gorgeous. Don’t be so superficial. Really understand the person’s character traits and try and get to know who they are as people.”
Tan France married Life With Husband Rob France
Tan France is an openly gay person married to an illustrator Rob France for over 10 years.
In 2019, Tan was featured in an interview with TheGuardian, where he talked about his upbringing from a young age. He came from a Pakistani family with the Muslim religion and resided in England from a young age. While growing up, he came to know about his sexual preference but felt that it was wrong of him to accept that side of him.
He told the rest of his childhood story in such a straightforward way that it was hard to detect any tension between his emerging sexuality and his faith. “Here’s the thing: the word ‘gay’ was never mentioned in the household,” he explained. “I don’t ever remember a gay character on TV, except maybe from Are You Being Served? But I was too young to understand what that was about.”
He then came to know of the label to put his feelings as ‘gay’ at the age of 13. He was similarly matter-of-fact about coming out, the process he began at 16 when he went to study fashion at Doncaster College and met a boyfriend in his part-time BT call center job. He told his friends, then siblings, then his mother. The rest of the family members were shocked, but he accepted that they needed time to adjust. Eventually, he openly came out as a gay person and married Rob France.
Tan France with his husband, Rob France (©:UsMagazine)
Rob France is a self-taught freelance illustrator who sells his unique, original pieces online. According to his official website, he specializes in portraits and figure illustrations. However, he once said in a 2015 interview with City Weekly that he actually was a pediatric nurse who dabbled in art on the side.
Tan married his husband twice, first in London in an intimate courthouse ceremony and then in Salt Lake City when it became legal.
In an exclusive interview with the New York Post, Tan revealed that he and Rob actually met on a dating website back in 2008, and they immediately hit off. When discussing why the two got along so well, the fashion designer stated that religion played a huge role. He said, “We practice some of our religions’ practices. We don’t practice them all. We practice what works for us.”
On a few occasions, Tan openly talked about his husband, Rob, even sharing his proposal story at one point during Episode 2 of season 1 of Queer Eye. During the episode, Tan explained that he and Rob had been together for so long and knew what was coming next for them, they just decided to get married.
“It was just a case of, ‘you know we’re going to get married one day, right?’ We had just agreed that it was going to happen… and we arranged the date!”
Tan had a difficult time coming out to his family, but his family didn’t want to be involved. He explained in Jonathan Van Ness's podcast about his upcoming marriage, but they didn’t want to hear any more details, let alone his partner’s name. But thanks to his TV series appearance, his family got the front-row seat to Tan’s lifestyle, and all seems good now as they have seen him on FaceTime over the years.
Tan revealed in April 2021 that he and his husband, Rob France, will welcome a son into the world via a surrogate this summer via his Instagram account.
He shared a photo of himself holding a superimposed ultrasound over his stomach to reveal the news. He wrote: “So happy to finally share that WE’RE HAVING A BABY!! No, I’m not pregnant, despite this VERY realistic pic. With the greatest gift/help of the most wonderful surrogate, Rob and I are lucky enough to be on our way to being parents, this Summer. Something we’ve wanted for SOooo many years. Our hearts are so full right now. I cannot wait to hold this baby, and to show him so much love.”
Who Are Tan France Parents?
The British fashion designer Tan France was born in Doncaster to Pakistani parents but now lives in the US. But his parents were born in Pakistan who follows the strict Muslim religion, and they later immigrated to the UK.
Due to the strict Muslim practices in his family, he hid the fact about his sexuality for several years, not until he turned 16 and opened up about himself to his whole family.
He lost his father at the age of 13, but as he may mourn his father’s death somewhere along the line, he felt glad that he didn’t have to come out to him about his sexuality. He once said that he wouldn’t “have contact with my family, I would have been disowned. I’m almost positive of that.” However, even though his family hadn’t disowned him when he came out, they didn’t discuss his gay life. Thankfully, his family relationship has become strong since they got the chance to see his lifestyle in the Netflix series Queer Eye.
Net Worth Of Tan France And His Career
Tan France's skills and passion for fashion designing are the real deal through which he earns lots of wealth to his name. He also earns quite the amount from his appearance in Queer Eye and his memoir. According to CelebrityNetWorth, he has an estimated net worth of $6 million as of 2020.
After studying fashion at Doncaster College, Tan started his career as a retail fashion designer. In the beginning, he worked for fashion chain Zara and also took up roles in major fashion lines like Selfridges, Chanel, and Bershka.
His career in the USA began in 2008 where he was based out of fashion capital New York City. Later in 2015, he moved to the USA to continue his work and accumulating more designing experience. After being Company Director at Shade Clothing, he launched his unique fashion line for women called Kingdom & State, in 2011 which included clothes that followed the Mormon clothing guidelines. This fashion line of his has also created a website to spread his products further.
Following this, he launched two other lesser significant clothing lines. His designs eventually caught the eye of retailers like Forever 21 and ModCloth, who purchased his designs. In 2016, he co-founded and became the fashion designer and CEO of the Rachel Parcell Inc clothing line, which sells at Nordstrom, an American luxury departmental store.
Tan eventually sold all of his businesses and took retirement not until Netflix reached out to him to appear as a fashion expert on Queer Eye, which was aired in February 2018. After his appearance in the series, he turned into a household name as he displayed his creativeness to do a fashion makeover and eventually turned into a fashion expert.
Besides, he also made a special appearance in several television shows and music videos, including in the song You Need to Calm Down by Taylor Swift in 2019 and in a special charity edition of the British television baking competition The Great British Bake Off in order to raise funds for Stand Up To Cancer. He is also presently co-hosting the Netflix series Next in Fashion.
Apart from his fashion designer career, representing his gay Asian community that suffers social ostracism, he published his memoir entitled Naturally Tan in June 2019.