Christian Siriano Shares His Wedding Style Advice: 'Go After Things You Would Never Normally Try On'
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Christian Siriano is sharing his best advice for brides and grooms who are shopping for their big day.
The Project Runway mentor and designer, 37, who recently collaborated with Minted Weddings to officiate two Valentine's Day wedding ceremonies in New York City, says he believes that more couples are reinventing the fashion wheel, as they prepare for their big days.
"I've seen a lot of play on gender dressing is really interesting right now," Siriano tells PEOPLE. "I've seen a lot of brides wearing tuxedos. And then I've seen a lot of men wearing gowns or wearing a big ball skirt with a jacket over top. That's been really fun to watch."
Siriano also notes that excitement is returning to the wedding game — an unexpected, yet welcome, COVID side effect.
"And then also the return to opulence," he says. "I think there was so many weddings that were canceled for so long, just after the pandemic for so long. So now our brides are like, the bigger, the better. More is more. So we love that."
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And as brides and grooms get ready to say "I do," Siriano said they should also say yes to the unexpected, and embrace the magic of the day.
"I think actually my advice usually is when you're ever shopping for any wedding look, whether it's a suit or a gown or whatever it is, I think you have to go into it as remember that this is your time to have your true fantasy moment."
He adds, "I think it's important to go after things that you would normally never try on. Because a lot of people, a lot of even brides, will come dress us and be like, 'I would never wear a strapless dress,' and then they end up in a strapless dress. Or, 'I would never wear a suit to my wedding,' and then they're in a tailored suit with a cummerbund and it's just really traditional. I think that's what people don't think about. You have to push yourself a little bit."
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It's advice that Siriano himself even took, breaking out of his routine on Tuesday to get ordained and officiate at the Valentine's Day nuptials.
"Obviously after leaving the world of fashion and then having a very real life love moment felt really good," he says. "It made it kind of, I don't know, just very New York too. Hello."
He adds, "I woke up today and I was saying to everyone, I was like, 'Last week I was fitting the vice president, and this week I'm marrying people.' That is a very New York career. There you go."
The eponymous fashion designer recently redesigned iconic yellow Clueless suit for long-time friend Alicia Silverstone for a Super Bowl commercial.
He created three different interpretations of the preppy set – including a dress version and more cropped silhouette – that interpreted Cher's look through the lens of an outfit "girls right now would want to wear."
"But In the end we were like, 'Let's keep it a little more classic,' " he says, and they landed on the blazer-and-skirt ensemble that made it into the ad.
Siriano also paid "homage to plaid" with three Clueless-inspired ensembles in his Fall/Winter 2023 collection shown at New York Fashion Week Feb. 9. They each tell a different story for the modern-day Cher, from the "traditional schoolgirl outfit" she might've worn to class today to the tuxedo trench coat that could've been her pick for a gala.
