Since creating his namesake label 10 years ago, Christian Siriano has cemented himself as a designer who championed inclusivity and diversity long before the rest of the industry began to embrace either as a way of life. Outside of his New York Fashion Week shows, which are are also a testament to how vast his clientele is, we feel like Siriano is at his best during Awards Season. He often dresses women for the red carpet who designers would otherwise ignore, women like Danielle Brooks, Candice Huffine, Kelly Clarkson, and Leslie Jones, but Siriano let us in on a little secret. All of that comes at a hefty price.
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“It’s so much money to make these custom things and send them around the world,” he said tells Sirius Radio host Michelle Collins. “It can be $2,000 to overnight a large box to LA.” He and his husband, Brad Walsh, visited The Michelle Collins Show where they broke down the cost of dressing multiple women for so many awards shows. “I want to tell you what my FedEx bill was the month of the Oscars, you really want to know what it is?” the designer teased. Collins admitted to her listeners she was “armadillo’d” when she heard the news — hugging her knees and pulling out her ponytail for the record — but wanted to know how many dresses Siriano had to overnight to LA.
“We probably sent about a hundred pieces out for the Oscars,” he said, between the parties for InStyle and Entertainment Weekly, it’s easy for costs to pile up. Add in that his client’s styling teams usually don’t have budget to cover shipping gowns across the country. “The reason that these stylists would say ‘we don’t have a budget for shipping’ is because they’re pulling a hundred dresses,” Walsh explained.
Finally, Collins asks Siriano how much Awards Season actually cost him. First, she offers $58,000, and then asks if the bill totaled more than $100,000. “Maybe about $8,000 shy of that,” the designer revealed. So, if you are keeping track, it costs almost $92,000 for Siriano to send his gowns all over the country. Now we’re curious about all the times (if ever) Siriano was offered a corporate discount, and the person at the checkout countered “Doesn’t It Feel Good To Pay Less?”
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Listen to the interview here.
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