She may have lost the Best Actress Oscar to Sandra Bullock, but last night's Oscars represented several triumphs for Meryl Streep. For one thing, her turn in Julie & Julia earned her a record 16th acting nomination. Not only that, but her gorgeous gown got her named one of best-dressed women on Sunday night's red carpet.

Streep's dress was a product of none other than Chris March, the Project Runway veteran with an eye for the outrageous and an infectious laugh. He may be best known for creating over-the-top costumes for clients like Beach Blanket Babylon, but his creation for Streep proves that he's adept at all flavors of couture.

We caught up with March Monday morning as he was still reveling in the rave reviews for the garment:

QueerSighted: How did you and Meryl Streep originally hook up? Did she know you from Runway?

Chris March: She was a fan of mine during my season, season four of Project Runway. She actually was a guest of mine at my finale show. Then recently, for the Golden Globes [below], she called and asked if I would make her a dress, and it went really well and she was on a bunch of best-dressed lists, so I guess she decided to go with me again. So that's kinda how it started.

That's great. I know in the past she's gotten some bad press over the clunky-jewelry-hippie look she was working.

Yeah, I know. (laughs)

So you went in a different direction.

I wanted to avoid that. And today, she's on everybody's best-dressed lists, so we're all very happy.

How is she as a client?

She's so sweet, and helpful and unassuming. You're there with the biggest star in the world that there is, and she's just funny and nice and down-to-earth, easy to get along with. She's very patient. As you can imagine, she's been in thousands of costume fittings, so she's very good at being fit. She's really sweet.

It's great that your stuff is getting out there and getting press attention, because I think there was that enduring thing for a long time of, "Well, you come from a costume background, so everything you make has breastplates."

Right, exactly. (laughs) The thing is, I've done different things over the years for different people. I guess maybe I'm just that versatile, I don't know. (laughs)

Do you still keep a hand in with the more outrageous stuff, or are you all silhouette now?

Just recently, I was asked by a company to make a dress out of a television set. (laughs) So I still get calls for that type of thing. And I have a TV pilot that I just finished filming where we make all sorts of crazy things, it's like my version of Ace of Cakes. Where we made like a corn-on-the-cob wig and a jacket covered in hair, you know, stuff like that.

Love it. So now that awards season is over, do you get to take a breather?

I have no idea! This is really the first time I've ever made anything for the red carpet, and it just happened to be for Meryl Streep. Awards season is kind of new to me, so we'll see. Maybe Meryl Streep needs more things throughout the year, and I'll certainly be happy to work with her.

Well, if she's getting good press, prepare to get a lot of calls for next award season.

We'll see!