'Queer Eye' star Tan France can't stand tech, TikTok, and mommy bloggers

Across the pond, in the quotidien hours of the mid-morning, Brits snack together. They call this phenomenon the "Elevenses" and, in the same way, Gretchen Weiners strived to make "fetch" a part of the American vernacular, Tan France is trying to make "Elevenses" happen here, too.

You know France from his work as a style savant on Queer Eye and competition show Next in Fashion. Now, in partnership with yogurt brand Noosa, he's working to bring the term from his native Britain into vogue.

"Everyone does Elevenses," he says over a Zoom call, looking habitually quaffed. "Nobody I know doesn't do Elevenses. I've worked in an office here before, I know that around 10 or 11 people are snacking. It's just that in America, there's no word for it."

We let France try to convince us of the fetch-ness of the "Elevenses," but not before asking him about his tech habits and take on the latest TikTok fashion trend.

Mashable: Hi, Tan. I apologize for my voice, I'm just getting over a cold.

Tan France: Oh no! OK, then I'm going to be honest. I have the flu. We're gonna get through this together! I moved three days ago, and I think it's the exhaustion of how insanely stressful it's been.

There's a study that says the top three stressful things in life are divorce, moving…

And death.

You're a father of two now. Parenting advice is very popular on TikTok, do you ever consult your For You Page for tips?

I've used TikTok, but I haven't used it in quite some time. And I don't really understand TikTok.

What don't you understand about it?

Well, I just don't know how to use it. I'm 40 now, and I'm very tech-averse. So I don't I don't know how to use it. I don't know how to post on it, somebody else does that. I'm an Insta guy.

But no parenting advice on Instagram, either. You know, there's a mommy blogger crowd.

I'm sorry, I can't stand them. Because they make me feel crappy about my life thinking, "Why don't I look gorgeous in my outfit and my kids look amazing?" I can't do that, I can't keep up with them. They make me feel crap about my life.

On my Instagram, I usually say how hard it is. I say, "I never look like this, it's just for this shot." Mommy bloggers just make me like they're always living life like that.

You're not on TikTok, but a device called the "crop tuck" is giving your French tuck method a run for its money.

Oh, I have seen this on Instagram. Yeah, it's lovely. I think it's absolutely lovely. I'm sure it'll work great. It looks wonderful. However, I like the casual-ness of a French tuck.

How does one keep sweaters French-tucked into pants? Mine always pop out.

I don't know. That's a really good question because I don't think it's ever popped out for me. When you tuck the sweater, do you then pull the sweater out a bit?

Yes.

I don't know what you're doing, but I can't help you.

You said you're not really into tech at all. Why?

My phone, that's all I can handle. We don't have Alexa or whatever all those other things are. Literally no interest whatsoever. Anything techie, I've got to turn all that off. I cannot use tech, it drives me insane. Because it always crashes, it's always complicated. You always have to reboot something, and I don't know how to reboot something. Boots are the gorgeous heels I've got. Other than that, I want to talk about a boot.

You must have a laptop...

I do, but all I know how to do on it is Zoom. I have no idea how to use Excel, I don't know how to copy and paste anything. That's what I've got an assistant for.

How do you watch Queer Eye and Next in Fashion?

We have a smart TV where all I have to do is press the app and it's there. I don't set any of that up. My husband does it and then all I do is press a button. I haven't even changed a lightbulb. He's the techie guy, he does all the maintenance that needs doing. I'm like, "I think I know what I offer to our life. You do the other things."

I've heard marriage is all about balance.

That's it.

My grandfather was a Brit like you and would use one single cup all day for multiple rounds of tea.

That's most Brits, that's my family completely. Everyone has a cup. You don't take that cup. I have my cup at my mum's house that I've had since I was 13. It's not like you've got a set of 10 cups and you just use whichever one. No, you use your cup.

He never mentioned this Elevenses thing to me.

I can't imagine why somebody would mention Elevenses in England because we just know Elevenses. If you ask a Brit, "Do you know elevenses?" it's like asking an American what the Super Bowl is. There was once an advert or, sorry, a commercial for this bar — it was a candy bar — but it was this "health" bar that they called Elevenses. They were just using the term that everyone knows.

Typically in England, your Elevenses is one of two things. It's either a breakfast bar which, again, I just see as candy. It's full of sugar, and it's got as many calories.

It's different than a biscuit?

You're not having a biscuit for Elevenses, you're having a biscuit for Tea. But I don't mean tea. I mean, when we say, "What are you having for Tea?" we mean that time between lunch and dinner. I know it's insane. But at Tea time, we will have tea and biscuits that we dunk into tea.

But for Elevenses, it's very typically a bar or yogurt because you've already had your cereal in the morning or your toast. And it's too much to have a burger or whatever at 10:30, 11 and so you have something either shockingly sweet, which is this fake health bar, or something more nutritious, and it's very typical in England to have yogurt.

There's usually an entire section in a grocery store for your Elevenses yogurt. I'm not just saying it because we're a part of this campaign, Noosa is my favorite yogurt. All of the flavors are lovely. but that lemon one is so insanely good. Coming in a real hot second is vanilla bean.

In the U.S., we usually think of yogurt as breakfast. What do we have to get past, culturally, to make yogurt our Elevenses snack?

The only hurdle is attaching a name. We're finding that — and there's a lot of research — that people are having yogurt in the mid-morning. So all this is to try and encourage Americans to use that name because there are many different names across the world: smak, brekky. But Elevenses is the only one that makes it very clear: It's 11 o'clock, it's time for that snack.

And the Brits won't mind us borrowing, as we always do?

I mean, America has taken all of our great shows. So you may as well take our breakfast snack.