I was actually pretty surprised I won. I wanted it so badly, but I needed it more than I wanted it. I'm just getting started....I'm not looking to make hundreds of thousands of dollars. I want to brand myself as well, but I want my clothes to be high fashion, avant-garde. It's easier to take inspiration from something that's creative than to build on something that's not. I don't want to do QVC.

Fortunately for Siriano, he — unlike Project Runway alums Chloe Dao, Jay McCarroll, Emmett McCarthy, and Laura Bennett — won't have to: Barneys New York, Jeffrey's, and Saks Fifth Avenue have all already bought pieces of his. So, yeah — one week after winning and Siriano, on talent and personality alone, is already the most successful person to have come out of the Bravo show. Other reasons to love Christian? He cares about his friends. "The only episode that bothered me was the first part of the finale. They showed all of the other designers with their friends and family, but not me. I had a bunch of friends over, and they cut it out of the episode. I'm not alone out here," says the clearly sensitive soul. Also, he's still friends with model Lisa Nargi. Says Lisa, "He's someone I'm always texting or sending messages to on MySpace. When things calm down for him, we'll definitely see a lot of each other....His clothes are going to be up there with the top designers. They're going to be the clothes that everyone wants to have. He'll be a designer like [John Galliano]."

And how is his life different post-Runway? "I can hardly go out anymore," he says. "Everyone wants to touch me or carry me, which gets really annoying after the first few times. You'd think I was naked the way people look at me....But I get paid to do parties now." Oh and does he say "fierce" anymore? Of course not: His phrase du jour is now "I'm gonna stab you."

Rubbing Elbows, Making Art [The Advocate]

• Now the face of Versace menswear, Patrick Dempsey has started referring to Donatella Versace as his "Italian mother." [Fashion Week Daily]
  
• Model Erin O'Connor musing on the end of another fashion season: "...yes I'm howling, oh how woeful I was when the mini cab rocked up early Sunday morning to collect the regal attire, literally stripped from my back to be sent back to each designer. Kind enough to donate for the week I hear you mutter? Jees, and Cinderella thought she had it bad? Hark, where for art thou my four-door Sports Series Maseratti? Not even a pumpkin post-shows for this lowly creature, just her own two spindly legs to get her from A to B..." [Vogue UK]
  
• The Herve Leger dress that Victoria Beckham wore to the Marc Jacobs show last season is now on sale at Intermix. Er, maybe not? So many people tried to buy it online that the Intermix website crashed. [Fashionista]

• Why was this not a challenge on Project Runway this season? Clothing made from plastic bags is the new recycling. [Guardian UK]
• Alessandra Facchinetti debut collection for the Valentino label: Hitting the runway on Thursday! [FT]
• Fashion folk: Mainly computer illiterate. [IHT]
• Jeffrey Kalinsky of luxe boutique Jeffrey, is giving Nordstrom a "makeover." Jeffrey, if you have never had the distinct pleasure of being abused there, is known for its infamously bitchy salespeople. [WSJ]
• Yves Saint Laurent's Stefano Pilati wants shoppers to feel like they've been taking opium when visiting the new YSL store in Paris. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Oscar de la Renta has just inked two licensing deal for handbags and small leather goods, finding more and more ways to put a little O in your life. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Escada's got a new CEO and he's ready to whore out the company by focusing on money-making world of accessories. Didn't we just read like fifty-thousand stories on the death of the It Bag? [WWD, sub req'd]
• I will mock my boyfriend ruthlessly if he ever wears a robe like this. [Chic Report]
• Recession? What recession? Women's apparel prices areon the rise. [IHT]

• You'll never believe this, but a fashion house (Tod's) is going to eschew skinny models in favor of... a skinny starlet! And in case you didn't recognize Sienna Miller over there, she invented "foho" style — that's folk-bohemian, for those of you who might have thought that sounded a little redundant. [WWD, last item]
  
• Victoria Beckham accepted her Glamour UK Woman of The Year Award in sequined Chanel hotpants. We can't think of a funny made-up "achievement" to riff on here, but maybe when she does that reunion album later this year they can rename her Really Scary Spice. [Vogue UK]
  
• Karl Lagerfeld has just finished shooting Babel star Rinko Kikuchi for Chanel Cruise 2008. Cause nothing says cruisewear like having played an angry deaf girl? [WWD, 2nd item]

• Hot young thing Erin Fetherston is rumored to be the next designer up for a 'GO International for Target' collection. And yeah, there are still people whose lives are boring enough to actually start "rumors" about the next-big-Target-high-low-collaboration. But we could honestly give a shit, what with Donna Karan fixing health care and Sarah Jessica Parker designing for a chain that is basically the next-best-thing to the 99 cent store. What about you call us when Miuccia Prada inks a deal with Amy Fisher, then we'll talk? [WWD, last item]
• Caché, that store where your mom and all of her friends bought their dresses to wear to your cousin's bar mitzvah, radically drops its second quarter earnings forecast. Maybe Chico's started a bar mitzvah line?[WSJ, sub req'd]
• Jeffrey Kalinsky, of the luxury Atlanta and NYC stores bearing his name, is going full-time at Nordstrom — the famously customer service oriented department store chain where he's currently a consultant — in exchange for a stake at his boutiques, where the salespeople are more known more for the "fuck you" theory of customer service. [WWD, sub req'd]
• Here's the most culturally sensitive lede we've read all day! "Hermès may offer turbans fit for a maharajah soon". [WWD, sub req'd]
• Evan-Picone founder and Tootsie/Chinatown/Urban Cowboy producer Charles Evans died yesterday at the age of 81. [NYT]