In 2018, New York Magazine wrote of CFDA designer and Westport resident Christian Siriano, “there’s no question that he has done more for women of all colors and sizes than most designers ever will.”
Quite an achievement, especially given what Vogue wrote of his Spring 2011 collection a mere seven years prior: “And while today's crowd, assembled to see [Christian Siriano's] fifth collection, likely owed its bulk to fans and fashion tourists, it also included Saks Fifth Avenue president… and Neiman Marcus fashion director… Both stores carry Siriano's collection… Siriano's clothes generally don't propose any fresh thinking about fashion or the way women should dress. And when they do, there's an air of the ridiculous… But it would be nice to see him shore up the goodwill and fame with clothes that can stand on their own.”
Vogue is, of course, Anna Wintour’s darling. She was, at that time, Chairwoman of the Met Gala*, and a long-standing member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) where she created the CFDA/Vogue award to support young designers. The CFDA helps these designers “flourish” and gives them access to rare funding opportunities.
According to Condé Nast’s CEO Roger Lynch, “There are very few people in the world who can have the influence on change and culture, as it relates to the activities that our business has, than Anna.”
If Anna is the matriarch of the fashion press in America, promulgating supplicant’s obsession with her Vogue brand of money, beauty, and fame, Christian would soon become its enfant gentil.
At age 21, Christian competed in the fourth season of reality show Project Runway. Although the judges were wary of his professional inexperience, they were ultimately wowed by his talent and voted him winner. Despite this win, or because of it, the fashion industry was frosty and dismissed his reality show win as pop-culture folly.
After the show, lacking the requisite resources, connections, and/or auxiliary notoriety, he collaborated with Payless and Victoria's Secret to “pay the bills” for his high-end clothing and runway shows.
In stark contrast to Anna’s long-held tenets of fashion, Christian explains “I dress people that I can support and support what they’re doing in their lives. That’s why it’s important to me and it should be important to every designer because the people that you put in your brand represent the brand.”
Despite his endearing personality and increasing popularity among consumers, trade publications neglected to validate his talent and the venerated fashion folk regarded his dalliances with down-market brands as cheapening his upstart label. In 2011 his first application to the CFDA was declined.
Christian then worked with J. Jill and Lane Bryant, developing capsule collections to accommodate all price points and flatter all sizes, 0 to 28. These mass-market female customers, all colors and socio-economic backgrounds, are those with whom Christian grew up near Baltimore and who are largely ignored by high-end fashion publications and designers. In fact, Christian drew inspiration from the wardrobes of the women who raised him: his grandmother’s pink suit; his mother, Joye’s, prints and colors; his sister, Shannon’s, costumes for her ballets. These women alone spanned sizes 2 to 16/18.
As well, he was raised in a non-judgmental home with freedom for creativity. “I never belittled or pushed my kids,” Joye remarks. Regarding Christian’s homosexuality, he never had to ‘come out’ and says of his mother, “She never made it a thing. She let me be me.”
With money from these ventures he financed his haute couture which has famously graced varying frames from comedian Leslie Jones, actress Christina Hendricks, actor Billy Porter, and former FLOTUS Michelle Obama. Instead of only “sample size” runway models, he continued to send women of all races and sizes down his catwalk; a reflective symmetry of his customers.
Style rags may have refused to notice him, but soon the newspapers did. Social media did. Celebrities and consumers did. Publicity and sales increased. Slowly, other labels took note and opted to strip off their privileged and exclusive veneer. Models became more diverse and clothing sizes increased.
He was accepted into the CFDA in 2013.
Meanwhile, Christian filled his atelier with sewers and salespeople of different ethnicities and backgrounds, creating a workplace that informs the product. On The Daily Dish, Christian explains, “It's not enough to just make pretty dresses; you have to make sure they actually mean something or say something or have something behind the work.”
These men and women are the same people to whom Anna Wintour is now apologizing. In an open letter this summer, Anna addressed the lack of black leaders and staffers in her offices. She writes, “I want to say plainly that I know Vogue has not found enough ways to elevate and give space to Black editors, writers, photographers, designers and other creators. We have made mistakes too, publishing images or stories that have been hurtful or intolerant. I take full responsibility for those mistakes.”
Never mind that her use of “we” effectively dilutes her responsibility by directing it toward other culpable parties. Or that in her 30+ years at the helm of one American’s most powerful magazines she never advocated or practiced racial inclusivity. Moreover, as the purported arbiter of “culture and change” in one of America’s largest industries, her attitude tainted those of other fashion gatekeepers.
As Anna’s controversial atonement spirals through the internet, websites and publications laud Christian as a disruptor of the status quo she and her peers constructed.
Which is how, without guile or intent, Christian is re-defining the industry that rejected him.
On March 20, 2020, he made another decision which continues to help obviate the legendary megalomania of designer insiders.
A day or two after quarantine began, while watching a briefing in which Governor Cuomo reported a dearth of medical masks, Christian made a decision. And, like most of his decisions, he didn’t let it flip flop like a caught fish on a hot dock. He just tweeted it into the virtual universe.
“If @NYGovCuomo says we need masks my team will help make some. I have a full sewing team still on staff working from home that can help.”
About 30 minutes later, Cuomo tweeted his acceptance. “I didn’t expect the governor to tweet back!” Christian recalls. “We were up and running the next day.”
So Christian and his seamstresses of celebrated gowns began churning out one of the least sexy items on the planet.
Following his lead, numerous fashion houses traded in their Italian-mill linen for F.D.A. approved-cotton blends. Doing so enables them to keep their tailors and dressmakers employed while helping to meet the demand for masks and gowns.
By July, Christian’s atelier had sewn over 150,000 masks for over 30 locations in New York State.
So what does this 34-year old do when he’s not revolutionizing the world? He muses about plans for a store in downtown Westport with his boyfriend, Kyle Smith. “It might be mixed, with wine and cheese… kind of like a curated NYC store.” He discusses which Westport resident he’d most like to wear one of his gowns, “Maybe I’ll go throw one on her door.” And he bemoans his mentees on Project Runway, “They’re all annoying, I’m like a mom telling her kids to do something because she wants them to be successful.”
His mom may disagree. Of her own son’s drive for success Joye simply says, “It’s just who he is.” Then adds, “Oh, my boy! I miss him so much.”
*Anna Wintour is still Chairwoman of the Met Gala.