Christian Siriano Invokes 'the Greats' for Spring 2023

Shown in Elizabeth Taylor’s former townhouse, the collection draws from the legacies of Hollywood icons like Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich and Bianca Jagger.

In many ways, Christian Siriano has always played by his own rules. So even though New York Fashion Week officially kicks off on Friday, the designer staged his latest runway presentation on Wednesday night, at the midtown Manhattan townhouse previously owned by Elizabeth Taylor (conveniently located next to Harry Winston).

Siriano didn’t think about this collection seasonally, he tells Fashionista backstage. “It’s not even that it’s spring. I was going into this as, ‘When Elizabeth Taylor’s townhouse becomes available — this was a year ago — we have to do something here. I’m already into this idea of return to glamour, so what do our customers want right now?'” he says.

Models made their way down a dramatic curved staircase from the third floor, which served as backstage, and took their time walking through the two floors that were set up salon-style, in one of Siriano’s most intimate-feeling shows yet. (Intimate doesn’t necessarily mean small, though: There were still two tightly-packed rows of seats, with celebrities including Janet Jackson, Coco Rocha and Aquaria, among others.)

The Christian Siriano client is itching for “a look,” according to the designer — clothes to wear to events, to concerts, to be out. “I kind of channeled that.”

That, plus the obvious ideas that come with being in such an iconic space, led him to his ultimate inspiration for the not-spring-but-technically-Spring-2023 collection: “the greats,” as he puts it — “Old Hollywood icons” like Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, Bianca Jagger and, obviously, Elizabeth Taylor and “how we’re inspired by all these iconic women that helped transcend what fashion and clothes [can be].”

“This is really the collection this season,” Siriano says, “individual moments of couture-like clothes.”

The references emerge at times subtly, at times not: Some looks can be connected back to the presumed muse, others channel the icon’s energy in more subtle ways — through color, volume, even texture. Though his brand has become synonymous with glamour, Siriano describes his latest offering as much more “specific” than what he’s done in the past, with an even more pointed emphasis on eveningwear.

“Sometimes there’s more of a theme — I wouldn’t say there’s a theme [this time]. It’s more about beautiful, great clothes I wanted to make,” he says. “Also, there are no rules anymore. Everybody just wants to make beautiful clothes, and that’s what I wanted to do. I just want to make pretty things.”

See Christian Siriano’s latest collection in the gallery below.