Christian Siriano's Journey into Fashion

originally January 12, 2022

Christian Siriano was born on November 18. 1985 in Annapolis, MD. At only 13 years old, he began designing clothes for his family members and hasn’t looked back since. Siriano studied fashion design first in Maryland at the Baltimore School for the Arts, and then, after being rejected from the Fashion Institute of Technology, went on to further his studies in London at the American InterContinental University.

Siriano started his apprenticeship working for British design superstar Vivienne Westwood then moved on to work for his all time favorite designer, Alexander McQueen. After his graduation in London, he moved back to the United States, and stationed himself in the country’s fashion capital: New York City.

Once in New York, Christian Siriano earned his living working as a makeup artist and did an internship as a private wedding designer at Marc Jacobs. It was while doing this, he auditioned and was selected to be on design reality TV show Project Runway Season 4 in 2008. Siriano was the only contestant in history to win four challenges on the show and made it to the finals.

Here are Siriano’s winning looks from the show:

His Final Collection

Christian Siriano won the season- the youngest designer to ever do so- and sequentially earned a spot at New York Fashion Week along with a spread in Elle Magaazine and $100,000 to make his dreams a reality in creating his own brand. His clothing line was and is a hit, making it into big retail store like Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue almost immediately and generating a revenue of well over $1.2 million in 2010. This feat landed Siriano a spot on the list of Top Forty Entrepreneurs under Forty by Crain. Accredited to the ground breaking success of his label, Christian Siriano was inducted into the CFDA (The Council of Fashion Designers of America) in June of 2013.

Along with his successful clothing line, Christian Siriano has used his artistic ability in a variety of collaborations of different mediums. In 2008, Siriano’s collection for Puma marked the beginning of these collaborations. This led to numerous incidents of partnership with Payless ShoeSource for Siriano over the next few years of higher end than the brands usual bags and shoes. Siriano also collaborated with Victoria’s Secret to launch his own makeup line, and reaching even further, Christian Siriano is responsible for creating a fashion themed phone for LG called the LG Lotus in 2009. Other collaborations by Siriano include brands like Starbucks, Spiegel, and O-Cell-O. Siriano also created a low budget friendly clothing line for the Home Shopping Network in 2013 and was received the opportunity to create costumes for Disney’s upcoming animated movie The Pirate Fairy.

Still best known for his marvelous creations seen on the red carpet, here are some of our favorite looks from Christian Siriano.

Best Red Carpet Moments:

Billy Porter at the Academy Awards 2019

Laverne Cox at the MET Gala 2019

Janelle Monae at the MET Gala 2019

Janelle Monae at the Oscars 2018

Coco Rocha at the 2014 CFDA Fashion Awards

Lizzo at the Grammy’s 2020

Lucy Lui at the Tony Awards 2019

Angela Sarafyan at the Emmys 2018

If you want to learn more about this fabulous designer, Christian Siriano has become a judge on Project Runway beginning in season 17 which aired in 2019 so you can get a bit of his insight if you check that out, and the designer published a book with the assistance from Tim Gunn called “Fierce Style: How to be Your Most Fabulous Self.” which I’ve linked for you HERE. Thanks so much as always. I love you. Bye.

XOXO,

Amy