Christian Siriano stages a surrealist escape at New York Fashion Week

With less than 48 hours before his runway show at New York Fashion Week, Christian Siriano was still waiting on his finale gown. The iridescent green liquid fabric he had ordered from Italy had been held in customs for weeks, arriving just in time for a last-minute creation.

A surrealist reverie unfolds at Christian Siriano’s NYFW show

For the designer, who first rose to prominence on Project Runway, the pressure was familiar territory. Yet the urgency added a renewed sense of momentum. “The best dresses come at the end because I’m really, really in it,” he said ahead of the show.

This season, Siriano dialled down the elaborate venue design that often mirrors his themes. Instead, he stripped the staging back, allowing the collection itself to command attention. The result was what he described as a surrealist dream — an abstract fantasy reminiscent of a Salvador Dalí painting, open to interpretation and grounded in emotion rather than explanation.

The runway opened in disciplined black and white: sharply structured tailoring, sculpted silhouettes and precise lines. Gradually, colour seeped in. Models paused along the catwalk, their hair moulded into dramatic swoops that looped and crossed around their necks, heightening the otherworldly mood.

Siriano revisited red-carpet archetypes with a twist. Asymmetric necklines cut across the body; tulle sleeves ballooned outward; peplums flared with exaggerated volume. Even monochrome looks shimmered with fringe, feathers, cut-outs and delicate beading. The collection leaned into boldness — sheer fabrics and body-conscious shapes made clear these were not designs intended to fade into the background.

As ever, casting remained central to his message. The runway featured models across sizes and genders, underscoring Siriano’s longstanding commitment to representation. “We need to escape and be somewhere else … in a dream world,” he said. “This will be a celebration of beauty, bodies, age and cultures and we need that.”

Standout moments arrived in vivid colour: a chartreuse lace cropped jacket paired with a maxi skirt, and the bright green ombré bubble gown fashioned from the long-delayed fabric. Supermodel Coco Rocha closed the show in the latter, striking theatrical poses and locking eyes with front-row guests. Among them were Leslie Jones and Whoopi Goldberg, cheering as Rocha swept past.

If this season marked a shift in staging, it reinforced Siriano’s instinct for drama — and his belief that fashion, at its best, offers a brief, luminous escape.

Email: shivani@newindianexpress.com
X: @ShivaniIllakiya

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