Christian Siriano: The New Red Carpet
In a time when every designer seems to be getting their first, if not second or third, coffee table book, it was only a matter of time before Christian Siriano received a follow-up volume to Dresses to Dream About (2017). He is without question one of the premiere red-carpet designers in the United States, and even if one is not familiar with him by name, anyone who has watched the Oscars’s pre-show or scrolled through Instagram to see what’s happening at the Met Gala will have come in contact with his work.
The problem with the current glut of designer-focused titles is that many of them aren’t that interesting. Christian Siriano: The New Red Carpet sadly falls into this category. At first glance, it resembles those hardbound hairstyle lookbooks found at Elizabeth Arden Red Door salons in the 1990s. This is not to say it’s cheaply printed—it just feels more like something tucked into a gift bag by a PR company than something one would go out of their way to purchase.
The layout also feels a bit phoned in. It is arranged alphabetically by each celebrity’s first name, and typically consists of a two-page spread highlighting a single outfit. The design for each presentation looks akin to an early 2000s PowerPoint presentation, with gridded-out photographs of a given garment in various settings, mostly ranging from its life on a mannequin to the first fitting to a candid of the celebrity mugging while wearing it. There’s a headline, a dynamic pull quote, and some colorful rectangles in the muted tones of a J.C. Penney dressing room. This formula is played out for just over 200 pages.
The promotional text for the book notes that it contains exclusive interviews; however, there is no evidence of that inside. The incredibly short introduction by Siriano sounds like it was written by his PR company, simply stating that ever since he was a little boy, he wanted to dress people for the red carpet. While perfectly pleasant, such sentiments offer no real insight into his process and could be easily said by countless other designers.
The marketing copy also promises the “untold stories behind some of the most talked-about red-carpet moments” and an exploration of “the intersection of fashion, art, and celebrity culture” in “a narrative that seamlessly weaves together the threads of creativity and glamour.” Whoever wrote that needs to go into politics because their ability to create something out of nothing is unparalleled—absolutely none of those points are present in this book. And is perhaps why this book is such a letdown. There is actually very little wrong with The New Red Carpet; it just fails to deliver what it advertises.