ELLE Interviews Christian Siriano

Want to meet the 23-year-old that’s already written the book on breaking into the fashion industry? Look no further than Christian Siriano.Siriano, the winner of 2008’s Project Runway, hasn’t allowed his reality-TV star to fall – rather, he’s cementing his permanence in the public eye. Last month, Siriano ran three independent showings at New York Fashion Week. This month, he’s promoting his latest work, Fierce Style – an autobiographical account of fame, fashion, and of course, fierce style.In an exclusive interview with ELLE, Siriano reveals details on the book and his personal life:On being rejected from FITWithout that setback, I never would’ve gone to London, never would have worked with Vivienne Westwood or at [Alexander] McQueen. [Not getting in] totally sucked, because it was a surprise. I wasn’t prepared for it. But honestly, it motivated me that much more to succeed.On meaningful mentorsIt’s interesting, because lately, the people who have ‘mentored’ me aren’t people I really know. It’s more that I’m mentored by some of the newish designers who are doing really well. Obviously, Altuzarra…and even though they’re not really new, Alex Wang and the Mulleavy sisters. It’s like, they showed one or two incredible collections, caught the eye of the right people, and now their trajectory is up, up, up.On trends that should die a slow deathYou know, there’s no one trend I can think of, but it’s more the trickle-down of the trends that I wish would die. Something that started off super-original and innovative on the runway goes through all these interpretations until it hits the lowest end, and then it’s just like…a joke. That is something I’d definitely like to see less of.To read the full interview with Christian Siriano, visit ELLE.com.