(Image credit: Krave Jec/BBC)
As New York Fashion Week gets underway, American designer Christian Siriano speaks about reality TV, his celebrity clientele and proving doubters wrong.
“If you want to work in fashion, you have to be totally passionate about it,” Christian Siriano told the BBC.
Siriano’s persistence is clearly paying off: he’s only 38, but he already has an impressive resume: founder of a lucrative US fashion label, has dressed stars such as Celine Dion, Michelle Obama and Zendaya, and is a co-host of Project Runway., One of the longest-running reality shows on American television, she won in 2007. Really “It’s tough,” he says.
Designer Christian Siriano founded his own label in 2008 and is now a household name in the American fashion world (Photo credit: Getty Images)
Siriano’s work also involves body advocacy: Since his first runway collection in 2008, he has famously designed clothes for plus-size people, and has pushed high-end retailers such as Moda Operandi and Neiman Marcus to carry his famously floaty evening dresses up to a UK size 28. In 2016, comedian Leslie Jones complained on social media that no designers would dress her for the Ghostbusters premiere, as she was big and tall. Siriano designed a form-fitting, off-the-shoulder black dress for her. He has since dressed other curvaceous celebrities, including Oscar nominee Danielle Brooks, Grammy winner Lizzo, and supermodel Ashley Graham.
Siriano realized early on that “there shouldn’t be a divide” between what fuller and thinner women could buy. “My mom is curvy and my sister is petite. They both wanted the same dresses. Chic is chic, right?” he says. His intuition was proven right when celebrity stylists began visiting his studio and requesting dresses for their movie-star clients. “But the runway references they brought in were often runway gowns worn by plus-size models,” he says. “Women with impeccable style know that it’s OK if the client is a size zero and the model is a size 14, because do not‘t It doesn’t matter. A great dress is a great dress!”
Siriano’s artistic designs for plus-size women have become increasingly popular among celebrities, including Lizzo (Photo credit: Getty Images)
Still, department stores didn’t order plus-size evening dresses in the same quantities they did smaller sizes. Siriano received emails from women who tried to buy his signature tulle puff skirts or strapless silk dresses but couldn’t find their size in stores. “I felt horrible about letting women down like that,” Siriano says. So about five years ago, he decided to move retail sales back to his Manhattan studio, where he could make the size customers wanted, rather than what department stores deemed “right” for them.
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The decision was a wise one: “There was this notion that curvy women didn’t have much money to spend on high fashion,” says the designer, whose evening dresses retail for more than $12,000 (£9,130). “Look, I’ve made hundreds of thousands of dollars proving them wrong!”
Power Dressing
It also has female fans like Oprah Winfrey, who recently wore a bespoke $2,200 (£1,674) silk crepe dress. Siriano Suit Oprah Winfrey has a mannequin in her studio, made to her exact measurements, for the Democratic National Convention in her hometown of Chicago. “It took two days,” the designer says. The studio also has a mannequin made to Oprah’s size to accommodate rush orders (Winfrey isn’t the only one; the studio has a few “VIP mannequins”). Some designers don’t publicize their affiliation to a particular political party. Siriano, who is known for designing the “Vote” dress worn by First Lady Jill Biden during her 2020 campaign, is excited about the dress. “I’ve always been something of a political designer,” he says. “If you’re not authentic, people can see through it. That doesn’t work. Authenticity, for me, is championing a cause for certain people.”
After shifting the industry’s thinking about luxury, scale, and political influence, Siriano is now considering a change of his own. “Making clothes is the most fun part of my job,” he says. “Running a fashion empire can sometimes take away from who you are as an artist, and that’s something I never want to give up. I can’t give it up. It’s who I am. So I’m trying to make more time to design Broadway shows, make more costumes for ballet, and really explore my artistic side as well.”
The American luxury designer is known for his signature flowy, flattering silhouettes. (Photo: Getty Images)
And like any artist, Siriano has his detractors. He has been slammed on social media for using luxurious fabric puffs that some critics consider dreamy but not necessarily modern. Siriano’s natural flamboyance has also been mocked, as if having an outsized personality, both on TV and in real life, precludes artistic merit. “When I was younger, I took it personally,” he says of the occasional online attack. “But mostly I was just confused. I was 25 and running my own business. It’s not like someone handed it to me. I worked hard, I made clothes, and people bought them. Why was I so upset? Because I was on a reality show?”
Changing Room
Changing Room This is a BBC column that shines the spotlight on fashion and style innovators who are at the forefront of progressive evolution.
Of course, it’s OK, even cool, to appear on reality TV these days: Many of fashion’s most influential people appeared on primetime reality shows before emerging as style icons, including Gigi Hadid, Jenna Lyons, Cardi B, Emma Stone, and Glossier founder Emily Weiss. Victoria Beckham I asked her My The Netflix reality show gives an inside look into her design house and beauty label.
The designer recently created a custom purple silk suit for Oprah Winfrey (Photo: Getty Images)
“Obviously, being a big personality in the fashion world has helped the brand grow a lot,” Siriano says. “It’s also my personality. I can’t change that, and I’m not going to change that,” he adds. “But at the end of the day, I always want it to be about the clothes. People have to want to wear my clothes. That’s my first goal and my end goal. It’s not about me. It’s about, ‘Do I like how I feel when I wear this dress?’ And that’s how I know I’ve done my job.”
The designer’s phone rang and he realized it was time to go: a mysterious celebrity project was due. “I think I’m going to sleep in the studio.” For Siriano, that’s what the fashion industry is like: it allows you to make dreams come true, but it also means staying up all night and sleeping on fabric.
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