‘Runway’ star fierce by design

There was a moment in “Project Runway’s” season finale Wednesday night when Christian Siriano, the boy wonder who typically finished his challenges early and with utter, arch confidence, looked like he was going to fall to pieces. Heidi Klum had said only his name and nothing else, drawing out her trademark torturous pause. The camera locked on his face: His lip trembled and buckled, he squeezed his roving eyes shut and then opened them, and a couple of tears leaked down his cheek.

Suddenly it was evident: Christian, 21, wanted this badly and maybe needed it more than Rami Kashou, an already established Los Angeles designer who has dressed Jessica Alba and Fergie. And so Christian -- with his club-kid half-hawk and mantra of “fierce!” -- became the youngest winner in the history of “Project Runway.”

Guest judge Victoria Beckham was pleased -- she’d noted earlier that Christian’s dramatic, voluminous creations, which sometimes threatened to swallow the heads of his models like some froufrou wicked python, had made her smile from her front-row seat. Yet don’t expect to see that sign of good humor in a photograph any time soon. Beckham has taken it upon herself to be couture’s sharp-boned gargoyle, admonishing the rest of us to enter those hallowed halls with respect.

Speaking from his apartment in New York the day after the finale aired, nearly a month after the taping, Christian, now 22, was vivacious but hadn’t forgotten the total freak-out feeling he felt in that moment. “I wasn’t really prepared to win,” he said in a voice that sounds like it’s dripping with gossip at all times. “I was so tired, so emotional, so exhausted. I wanted to win for my family and my friends who had all supported me.” He said he wasn’t surprised exactly, but it still came as a shock: “Here I was competing with these amazing, talented designers, and I’m so young.”

So, how did he win? The runway, like an X-ray, exposed cracks in Jillian Lewis’ and Rami’s collections. Nina Garcia was right: Former Ralph Lauren designer Jillian couldn’t decide which of her inspirations should dominate, and in the end, none of them did -- a disservice to her innovative and richly detailed collection. Rami, who will stand by his ideal of statuesque feminine beauty no matter what, lost for his jeweled tones and moss greens that won’t flatter every woman. Something tells me that, though he lost, he’d opt out of jumping in his time machine. And I have to say that I thought the draping master had it in the bag.

(Ahem, Rami, I wear moss green and peacock blue. Send those clothes to me c/o the L.A. Times. Kidding!)

If you watch “America’s Next Top Model,” you know the importance of humility. If those girls don’t blubber in front of the den mothers at some point, they get cut. Throughout the show, Christian was portrayed as the enfant terrible, issuing harsh judgments on others’ designs that were almost always spot-on. But he knew when to pull it back. On the prom challenge, for instance, Christian let a domineering teenager cow him into creating a mess, and he took his lashes accordingly. His occasional flashes of humility kept him likable and only deepened as the season continued.

He’s not unaware of this dynamic in his personality: “My cockiness,” he sighed. “Well, I would call it my confidence. Yeah, it’s sassy, but it’s meant to be funny. There were some challenges I didn’t do well on and I took that. It’s not like I was crazy, because I agreed with the decisions.”

But he doesn’t feel bad about any of those lacerating critiques he dished out to his fellow designers. “Every sassy comment I made, you heard it from the judges as well, so it wasn’t like I was coming from nowhere.”

Whatever his rep is, he takes it with a grain of salt. “I don’t mind being portrayed as [cocky] because I think by the end you see that I’m a humble person and I’m not evil and I don’t hate anyone. I’m not Jeffrey Sebelia! Now he’s sassy!”

Christian had his share of doubters among his competition, of course, and at one point magnanimous mentor Tim Gunn didn’t see what all the fuss was about either. “We saw him in New York, the last stop of our auditions, so we already had selected most of our designers,” Gunn said. “As I was looking through his application, I said, ‘Why are we seeing this kid? How can he possibly compete with these people?’ ”

But the producers saw a spark in Christian, and once Gunn was in the room with the diminutive kid from Maryland who made his own prom outfit, the former chairman of the fashion design department at Parsons the New School for Design did too.

“This is an old soul. His talent is simply staggering and prodigious,” Gunn said. “The closest I’ve seen at his age is my former students Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough, the Proenza Schouler boys. They were close, but they weren’t Christian.”

For now, Christian, who says the Bryant Park show nearly destroyed him -- models ripping the pants you made five minutes before the catwalk will do that -- is calmly waiting for his $100,000 check to come. His plans for it include working on a spring collection that will feature more color and more prints and getting “a fabulous bed” at long last: “Right now, my room is tiny and crowded with big tables, sewing machines and shelves with fabric all over them,” he said. “Now that I have means, I need somewhere to sleep.”

On the near horizon, he’s got a visit to L.A. scheduled for next week, to show Beckham some clothes from his collection and a few pieces he made just for her. He loves L.A., which might seem counter to his dark, Londonesque sensibilities. “I looooove the atmosphere. I could design there. . . . I’d love to do more of a casual brand, little wearable dresses and jeans. But, in the future, in the future.”

In the meantime, he’ll probably have Beckham as his fierce representative.

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margaret.wappler @latimes.com