Carson Kressley gives Grant Smithies the lowdown on living the life fabulous - and has a word of advice for some famous friends.

I have it straight from the gay horse's mouth. Understated interiors are out. Eye-popping animal print soft furnishings are the new black.

Queer Eye For The Straight Guy star Carson Kressley is in his New York apartment, and he loves what he's done to the place. He's looking out across an expanse of "really fun" deep-pile leopard print carpet, which is cunningly offset by the "paler, cooler colours" of the walls. The whole picture is bathed in golden evening light that's streaming in between his "absolutely super" zebra-striped curtains. The living room as zoo? "Well, you know, this room is pretty dramatic, but I like to think it's classic as well," he says in that airy half-sigh we know so well from his show. Would someone know immediately that a gay man lived here? Probably."

Kressley, 36, has just gotten in from a long flight. He's feeling jetlagged, and nostalgic. "I grew up in rural Pennsylvania, but it was clear early on that I wasn't going to be a traditional country boy. My dad always wanted to take me to watch car racing, but I wanted to go with my mom, shopping for clothes. As a teenager, I loved ponies and clothes, like a girl. Now here I am, living in Manhattan, in this fabulous apartment, telling other people how to dress, and going out with boys. There was a certain inevitability about it all."

His favourite word is "fabulous" and his life is too. He's tickled pink, can't believe his luck. Four years ago Kressley was just another stylish nobody. A dressage champion obsessed with horses, he worked for the American Equestrian Federation in New York after leaving college, then landed a job at the fashion house of Ralph Lauren. "It was the best job! I got my fashion education there." Then, with no previous show biz experience, he auditioned for Queer Eye in 2003. The show took off, and he is its biggest star. "It's fabulous!" he says. "I just got back from two days of interviews in the Phillipines, then I flew to LA to co-host the Miss Universe pageant, which was super. It nearly turned me straight, there were so many beautiful women there. And from there I went to Louisiana to shoot a Christmas movie with John Goodman. I'm a busy little camper these days."

Life wasn't always so peachy. Kressley was a lonely child, painfully aware he was different from those around him. "If you're a black kid in a white school, you go home and at least your parents are black too. When you're a gay kid, your mom and dad aren't like you either, and it's hard to see anyone else - on TV, in the street, anywhere - that's like you either. You feel like no one in the world knows how you feel, and you can't even discuss it because the subject is taboo."

These experiences inform Kressley's first children's book, You're Different, and That's Super - an update of the Ugly Duckling story featuring an orphaned unicorn who's ostracised by a herd of horses and then proves his worth. "I grew up on a farm where I had lots of horses, and they became my only friends, really," he says. "I used to talk to them all the time. I wrote the book because I realised that kids feel different for a lot of different reasons, whether it's because they're gay, or have a disability, or are the only black kid in a white school or whatever. It's really important to share the idea that being different might feel like a problem at the time, but ultimately diversity is a strength."

Kressley has felt different for as long as he can remember. It wasn't until his teens that he realised he was gay, but an unusual interest in fashion started much earlier. "I distinctly remember my outfit on the first day of kindergarten, which was a blue and grey plaid leisure suit. It was fabulous, but everyone else was in jeans and T-shirts, so I did tend to stick out. I blame my mom. She was quite the fashion plate in the 70s, with matching fur hat and boots and pantsuits and lots of colour and great jewellery. I think I picked it up there."

For those that haven't seen the show, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is a blast, a mad flurry of sexual innuendo, shameless product placement and self-improvement. Each week a heterosexual slob is not only given a wardrobe makeover by Kressley and treated to a decent haircut, he's also taught by the rest of the team to cut his nails, shave properly, open wine, waltz, fillet sea bass, trim nostril hair, use the right spoon for soup, moisturise and mix martinis while his previously taste-free apartment is renovated in his absence.

The subtext here is very clear - gay men are innately stylish, while straight men have no taste. Gay men are born knowing their cashmere from their corduroy, their soft furnishings from their salmon souffle, while straight men happily chow down on burgers, use old sheets for curtains and have wardrobes bursting with grey vinyl jackets and stained tracksuit pants. Gay men are sophisticated and independent, whereas most straight men survive only because they have their mother, wife or girlfriend to look after them. "Some people complain the show reinforces stereotypes, but it's only entertainment really. All of us know there are stylish straight guys out there, and we've all met gay men who're appallingly dressed. Trust me, bad taste does not discriminate! What the show's really about is just guys helping guys. There's no gay political agenda. It's just making the point that while we may do things a little differently in the bedroom, we ultimately want the same thing as anyone else, which is to look good and to feel good about ourselves."

Nobody could be more surprised than Kressley that the show has been such a mainstream hit. "It has been very strange, but also very welcome, to feel the warm embrace of heterosexual middle America. And the show has also had really positive spin-offs for other gay men. We're always hearing from young people who say - `hey, your show allowed me to finally talk to my parents about being gay'. That's fabulous, isn't it? We're taking gayness right into people's living rooms, and opening people up to the idea that gay men can be ordinary nice guys. Of course, we're ordinary nice guys with great taste, who know how to cook, and dress, and decorate our homes. That's why we got the job."

Kressley has no time for those who dismiss fashion as shallow elitist nonsense. "We could all get by wearing prison jumpsuits every day, but why would we? Clothing is a great way to express yourself. People who dismiss fashion are just fun police, really. They need to relax."

Kressley's attention to how he looks doesn't stop at his clothes - he has regular Botox injections, and has had fat injected into his receding chin to give it a more manly jut. Other than fashion, he says, his main interests are "boys and horses". He dates a steady string of the former, and owns four of the latter, one of which is called Lola "because she's a showgirl".

But right now, Kressley is tired. This globe-trotting fashionista needs to sleep, but before he goes, he has a message for New Zealand men. "I was down there a few years ago and I really noticed the men. I like my men to be big and strapping, and there were a lot of men like that down there. Perhaps it's time I got myself a big Kiwi bloke. If any of them want to ask me out, tell them I'm single, I'm available, and, of course, I'm fabulous."

Carson's Celebrity Critiques:

Donald Trump: "His hair is the eighth wonder of the world. It's like an engineering miracle. But it's become so much his trademark now that I don't think he should ever change it. Without the hair he's just another ageing billionaire."

Paris Hilton: "Hers is a look I could never pull off, to coin a phrase. And she'd be far sexier if she toned it down. There's something about mystery that's really attractive, rather than just putting all your goods in the window at once."

Keith Richards: "He has a very distinctive look, which is good. That whole elderly gypsy thing. The best thing he could do to improve the way he looks is just to get some sleep."

Bono: "I'm not a fan of the sunglasses inside at night thing. It's a bad look. Is he trying to create his own personal solar eclipse? Take off the glasses!"

Bjork: "The time she wore that dead swan dress to the Academy Awards struck me as the ultimate fashion disaster. Dead animals generally don't make for good fashion."

George Clooney: "He's one celebrity that definitely doesn't need a makeover. It doesn't matter whether he's on the street in LA or on the red carpet, he always looks effortlessly and classically stylish. You don't really notice the clothes, which to me is the mark of great style."