KATHERINE VOLIN | 3.19.2008
,
sassy Christian Siriano was crowned the winner
of Bravo's "Project Runway."
The 22-year-old's run on the show was
chronicled in his often whiny, frequently snippy
and occasionally dead-on interview blurbs that
peppered an otherwise tame fourth season of
the show.
"I'm gonna die of barfness," he once said
about a challenge.
"I'm not a miracle worker, lady. I can't
make you have an ass," he told a client in
another challenge.
"Don't these bitches know that I'm way
better than them?" he quipped.
These and many other classics fell
alongside a couple of mass media catch
phrases the rest of us gays, who aren't on TV,
already use or have heard: "Fierce" and "Big
Tranny Mess Up in Here." So entrenched he
became in the pop zeitgeist, even "Saturday
Night Live" got into the act with Amy Poehler
doing a spot-on impression of Siriano.
And to top it all off, Siriano was the envy of
squealing queens everywhere when guest judge
Victoria Beckham showered his work with praise
and asked him to design for her.
,
we spoke with Christian. All the insecure
complaining that marked his tenure on the
show was replaced with confident
joyfulness and generosity toward
his fellow competitors.
"I know that I come off
sassy and make funny
comments, but in all
honestly, I get along with all the designers," he
says, saying that he still keeps in touch with
Jack, Victoria, Kevin, Sweet P and Kit. "I feel
like I made some real lifelong friends, which is
wonderful."
As for the comments he made about other
designers during the show, Siriano chalks it up
to immense pressure.
"It was so stressful. I did say that Rami was a
bit annoying to work with sometimes, but
everyone was. Some days Chris would be so
annoying because of his laugh, and Jillian would
be annoying because she was whiny, but you
know, I'm sure they felt the same way about
me," Siriano says.
The champ says he plans to use the recent
publicity to promote his collection.
"I really was taking 'Project Runway' like a
fashion route," he says. "I want to be a fashion
designer, I want to be in the fashion industry. I
want to dress Victoria Beckham. I don’t want to
go that route where [I win
on] TV, and then it
stops here."
After Beckham expressed interest during the
"Project Runway" finale, Siriano promised he
would comply.
"I made her a few dresses, and hopefully I'll see
her next week and see what she likes, see how it
goes," he says.
Siriano won a new car, $100,000, and publicity
that would make other struggling designers
green with envy. Former competitor Jack
Mackenroth, a friend of Siriano's, is not one of
those people.
"I am so proud of him," Mackenroth says.
"When anyone asked me the whole way along, I
always knew it would probably be him."
Siriano's runway show, a black sea of
cigarette pants with voluminous tops and a pair
of dresses at the end, was visually stunning.
"When you do a [runway] show, you're putting
on a show. It's theatrics, and I think Christian was
the most successful at that," Mackenroth says.
The collections two dresses aside, Siriano's
winning looks were dominated by androgyny.
"I wanted it to be feminine, but sexy and
strong and yes, I know that my clothes aren't for
every woman, but I think that
the woman who wants
to wear my clothes
wants to feel that
way," he says.
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