Project Runway's Season 4 winner Christian Siriano made the word 'fierce' one of the most over-used catchphrases in popular culture, applying it to everything from a model's feline strut to a gown's slinky cut during the 2007 run of the reality series.

Two years down the track, he is not sorry. In a chat with regional journalists over the phone last week, he confesses with a giggle: 'I really did use that word way too much but I still throw it around. I don't really have a new phrase, I'm kind of keeping the nostalgic appeal of fierce.'

For many fans of the show, this quippy boy wonder remains one of the show's most memorable contestants. He thinks so too.

'I don't think that Season 5 has as much drama and interest,' he says of the new season that is currently airing on Discovery, Travel & Living (StarHub Channel 16) every Saturday at 9pm.

Siriano, 23, has since gone on to bigger and brighter things.

He just showed his Cleopatra-inspired collection at New York Fashion Week, has a line of bags, shoes and maternity wear, and just landed an account with prestigious department store Saks.

He will also design costumes for the movie Eloise In Paris, which stars glamazon Uma Thurman, and has a book coming out called Fierce Style: How To Be Your Most Fabulous Self.

Plus, discount chain Payless has roped him in to design its fall/winter, holiday and resort collections. Oh, did we mention a beauty collection is in the works too?

TONED DOWN DIVA

Still, amid that heady whirl, he looks back fondly on his Project Runway experience, describing it as 'really the best platform and the most exposure that I could have got'.

Siriano, who once interned with British designers Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, still keeps in touch with several of the designers from Season 4, he says.

He also chats with the show's mentor Tim Gunn 'all the time' and makes sure that judge and Marie Claire fashion editor Nina Garcia gets invited to his shows. 'She's a big supporter and I love her.'

He has also designed a gown for model and Project Runway host-judge Heidi Klum, so it appears the only one of the three judges not completely in his good books is designer Michael Kors.

'I was never afraid of what he was going to tell me because he wasn't somebody that could later on make my career', is his frank assessment. 'I could dress Heidi and Nina could put me in a magazine, whereas Michael Kors is a designer himself. What was he going to give me?'

You can't blame Siriano for being competitive. A reality show can be a 'really strange, weird place' for a designer wanting to be taken seriously, as he puts it.

'When I was on Project Runway, I was very young and very naive. Now I know the industry. I realise that I have to be more professional,' he says.

'I still have the diva attitude but I try to tone it down.'

These days, the former hairstylist from Maryland is definitely focusing on more than one-liners - he plans to make Christian Siriano a brand.

It's not all work and no play, however. Viewers who remember his tiny apartment from Season 4 will be glad to know that he has moved to a much larger apartment in Manhattan.

'My bank account is also very different, thank God,' he says, 'And I travel a lot. It's a better lifestyle.'

To get his name out there - 'I would just love to have a beautiful, amazing editorial in Vogue or Harper' - he hopes to dress celebrities like designer favourites Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Nicole Kidman and 'even Britney Spears'.

The ideal, of course, is to get a creation onto American First Lady Michelle Obama.

'She's so chic. Designing an evening gown for her would be amazing, it would be such a great platform.'

Make no mistake - the catchphrase-spouting reality imp is, more or less, a thing of the past.

'It's really fun to be on television but it's not my goal. My goal is to be a successful designer and be in stores internationally and have that brand really built.'

This article was first published in Urban, The Straits Times.