No matter how personally annoying Christian Siriano, the “Project Runway” Season 4 winner, can be, he, nonetheless, may be the greatest young working designer in this country right now.
And that’s going some. Reality show contestants usually aren’t, well, the real deal.
Can you even remember the name of last year’s winner of “American Idol“? For the most part, these shows exist because they are exercises in human drama. Most of the contestants end up as reality show whores or worse, as victims on “Celebrity Fit Club” if they are lucky, and “Celebrity Rehab” if they aren’t.
Not Siriano.
Tonight Bravo has a one-hour special, “Christian Siriano: Having A Moment,” on the making of Siriano’s line for his Fashion Week runway show. Clearly, the show was filmed as a pilot but it’s one that didn’t fly. And that’s good and that’s bad.
Good because Siriano can be an annoying TV character, sure, but also because the guy’s already got too much on his plate to start thinking about TV. Bad because I for one — and I’m hardly a fashionista — can look at his gorgeous clothes on those tall skinny, aliens from outer space (aka runway models) stomping down the runway for hours.
The special takes us along with Siriano — who now has a fashion company of his own — as he prepares his clothes in the final days before his big NYC tent show. We experience the insanity minutes before the show, to the show itself, to the press reviews, to the buyers reactions and, most importantly, to how it all translates into the store buyers’ orders.
Because the clothes are so drop-dead gorgeous, real, and — did I mention gorgeous? — there is not tension in worrying about whether the buyers will buy. The clothes are fairly priced and beautifully made. Hopefully as Siriano becomes the next Armani he won’t forget that there are real people who don’t live on the Amalfi coast and have millions in spare change to spend on clothes.
The tension rises before the show, what with shoes breaking and everyone yelling backstage.
It’s a big week for Siriano — his own special and being named (along with my own daughter, Jessica Rovello) to Crain’s “40 Under 40” list of rising NYC stars. Not bad for a kid from Maryland.
Bottom hem? Watching anyone at work — even if it’s with celebrities and models — can be tiresome, so a special is the way to go. But oh those clothes. . .