One of the fab five that make up Netflix hit Queer Eye, interior designer extraordinaire Bobby Berk opens up about escaping his religious upbringing in Missouri, becoming a household name and appearing in TayTay’s You Need to Calm Down video

Words Juno Dawson

Bobby wears shirt, by The Kooples, blazer, by Prada, skirt, by Charles & Ron, boots, by Karl Lagerfeld, rings, by Ginette NY

Photography Paul Samaha

People will say ‘You’re just copying Jonathan,’” Bobby Berk laments as we admire his avant-garde portraits. Styled by Luca Kingston, Bobby looks light years away from how we know him on Netflix phenomenon, Queer Eye. There, he’s regarded as perhaps the least flamboyant of the fab five - the hardworking, down-to-earth interior designer who notably gets shit done.

Berk says the corsets, skirts and makeup aren’t unusual for him. “It’s been something I’ve been doing for a while: my Emmys look; my Golden Globes look; my Oscars look. They’re all very androgynous. I love playing with that. I don’t know if I hid that in the beginning, but Jonathan was always so open about his style. There was a very specific look that the producers wanted me to have in the early seasons: the pastel clothes, the bright blonde hair. That’s not me. My closet is 95 per cent black. It’s nice to be able to branch out a little bit.”

s we chat on Zoom, Berk and his husband, Dewey, are COVID-19 quarantining in LA, and filming on Queer Eye is suspended for the foreseeable. Berk is using the time away from the show to focus on his solo projects, including his aesthetically pleasing lifestyle website: bobbyberk.com.

“Before Queer Eye, I had stores all over the US. I had my own wallpaper! Everything got put on hold and I became part of one big five-person personality.” He is, of course, referring to his castmates Jonathan Van Ness, Antoni Porowski, Karamo Brown and Tan France. “I sold home furnishings and accessories for many years, but I moved away from that when we started filming. Now, I want to show the things I do on my own as well. With bobbyberk.com, initially, I wanted to do a round-up of what I did on Queer Eye: like, here’s how I created a fake window in a basement! It expanded from there: food, health and fitness, wellness, fashion, travel, and design. It’s very editorial - high end but accessible.”