Valley roots serve fashion designer Tanner well

If fashion designer Jim Tanner becomes the Valley's latest reality show star, he'll owe a lot of his success to farm living in Strathmore.

As a kid, Tanner had to learn to make his own fun when playing with the dog or taking care of the horses got old. It was a half-mile bike ride to the nearest neighbor.

What started as a way to beat boredom has turned into a career and a spot on a reality show.

"Launch My Line," which debuts Wednesday night on Bravo, matches working fashion designers with people in design- and entertainment-related fields -- architecture, music and journalism -- who want to design clothes. The winning partnership will result in the launch of a clothing line.

Hosts are Canadian twins Dean and Dan Caten, fashion designers and the creators of Dsquared2, a high-end fashion label.

Tanner owes his place as one of the 10 experts on the show to a friend who pushed him into trying for it. "I first said that I don't want to be a reality TV person, but my friend asked me to just go to the interview. I thought about it, went in for the interview and the rest is history," Tanner says. "It actually ended up being a lot of fun."

He's so secretive about the show he won't even discuss who became his design partner. Pairings will be revealed in Wednesday's season opener, and then teams will go to work on a series of challenges.

The skills that qualify Tanner to be an expert emerged from those lonely days on the farm.

"I always had a creative side, a curiosity to take everything apart," Tanner says. "I like to do things with my hands."

At the age of 10, Tanner had already taken apart every phone in the house when he found a 1929 Singer sewing machine in a spare bedroom. He ripped up several old pairs of sweat pants and created a new pair of pants.

Meanwhile, he was getting interested in acting. His grandmother took him to plays and eventually he got into community and high school theater programs.

Although he wanted to be an actor, Tanner was drawn to wardrobe and costume design. Sophomore year at Strathmore High School, he made costumes for "Cinderella" from velvet bedspreads he found at home.

He went on to perform with the Barn Theater in Porterville, work in wardrobe for summer theater in Santa Rosa and teach costume design at College of the Sequoias.

Tanner eventually moved to Los Angeles, where he's tailored Ryan Seacrest's awards show suits and designed for Hayden Panettiere and Evangeline Lily. He's dressed The Pussycat Dolls and saved the day for Lady GaGa and her dancers when he refit costumes used in a music video to the tour dancers in just a few hours.

"Working with Lady Gaga was a great experience. She is very serious and really thoughtful about what she puts into her art," Tanner says.

Now he feels ready to use all he's learned to help a would-be designer launch a line.

"One of the things I am so grateful for, having worked with such amazing people in costume design, is learning you have to know how to do everything," Tanner says. "You have to know how to do menswear. You have to know how to do womenswear. How to do swimwear, historic recreations and futuristic mad creations.

"I am comfortable with that and my skills set has become large enough I feel comfortable taking on any task."