Christian Siriano shows up regularly at his TriBeCa neighbor’s door, but it isn’t to borrow a cup of sugar. (“Neither of us cooks,” his neighbor says, like a typical New Yorker.) Instead, Siriano often comes bearing a vase or some other interesting piece from his own place that he thinks might actually work better in hers. He should know, after all, since he designed her apartment. The two have been friends for about 15 years, and at one point the client also worked for Siriano, doing sales for his fashion business. “We built a good relationship,” she says, “and I ended up moving into his building. So he can’t get rid of me!”
Siriano, renowned for dressing the likes of Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Billy Porter, celebrated his namesake fashion label’s 15th anniversary in September with a blockbuster show at the Pierre hotel—Sia performance and all. His move into interior design has been a relatively organic process. It grew out of his interest in custom fabrics, which he has been making since his brand’s earliest days, just after he won the 2007 season of Project Runway. “I became obsessed with tapestries and reupholstery,” he recalls. “That’s how I fell in love with design. As I began collecting art and getting older, I started to think of furniture and objects as investment pieces.”
The decorating work began with a few clients who had been wearing Siriano for years and, of course, with the design of his own homes. (He has a house in Connecticut in addition to his Manhattan apartment.) Recent and current Siriano Interiors projects range from a 15-room Chagrin Falls, Ohio, hotel—cheekily named the Inn of Chagrin—to a $40 million residence in a tower overlooking Central Park.
For his friend’s TriBeCa apartment, Siriano says the directive was “something that was cool and beautiful and glamorous and all the things.” He is a connoisseur of French and Italian furnishings from the 1930s through the ’60s, which also appealed to his friend. “I love that he’s able to bring in vintage, which I also incorporate into my personal fashion style,” she says. In the dining area, for example, the 1940s chairs are from a set of 12 that Siriano had reupholstered in mohair. A few of them also ended up in the guest suite. “They were totally destroyed when I bought them,” he says. “Luckily she liked them. To me, they look almost like little people in dresses.”
Tour Christian Siriano’s first Interior Design Project in Manhattan
The living room’s curvaceous white sofa is an homage to 20th-century French designer Jean Royère, custom created for Siriano by Connecticut-based Kostas Upholstery. Siriano’s network of makers, vintage dealers, and artists extends across the tristate area and beyond, but he seems particularly loyal to Connecticut. Meighan Morrison, whose large canvas is in the living room, is based there, as are Lisa Bagley, whose painting hangs in the dining area, and Dumais Made, the ceramics studio that crafted the kitchen light fixture. Siriano regularly hunts for finds at a local antiques center in Fairfield County and a favorite gallery, Greenwich Living Design. “I shop a lot,” he says. “I basically buy as many pieces as possible. And then hopefully somebody will like them.”
Siriano Interiors also manufactures some pieces itself, such as the living room’s custom Wave cocktail table. And the striped silk-blend bed linens in the main bed-room were sewn at Siriano’s fashion studio. “She wanted something that was very, very soft,” Siriano says, “so we made those custom.” Paired with the bedding are lamps from Siriano’s friend Athena Calderone’s Crate & Barrel collection. “Athena is so talented,” he says. Plus, she’s chic, he adds. “Every woman we work with is pretty much, ‘I want to look like Athena!’ ”
Orange-tone accents throughout the apartment are a nod to the client’s favorite color. It required Siriano to step out of his comfort zone, but the end result was deemed successful. “He was great about picking woods and browns that were more orange, so they still felt neutral but had that color scheme I was going for,” the client says. As for taking Siriano’s hand-me-downs, she doesn’t mind at all. “I live to steal his things,” she adds.
The whole project unfolded over about a year, with the client often traveling and trusting Siriano to make most of the decisions. The timeline may seem compressed for an interiors project, but compared to the pressures involved in whipping up a custom frock, it’s almost a leisurely pace. “Having a year deadline is like a dream,” Siriano says. “We never get that in fashion, ever.”
This story originally appeared in the November 2023 issue of ELLE DECOR. SUBSCRIBE
