hat a difference a year makes.

A cliché perhaps, but one perfectly suited to Jason Wu’s remarkable ride. As the designer retraces the steps of his short career and expounds on a host of new developments, those six tidy words apply well. Few other designers have spent the past year on such a warp-speed upswing, and none has gotten as laser-focused a publicity boost as Wu. Need we even mention his one-shoulder inauguration ballgown for Michelle Obama?

“That was a life-changing night,” says the 27-year-old Taiwanese-born designer. “That kind of global exposure comes once in a lifetime. I mean, I was doing the Today show, CNN and Good Morning America back-to-back the next morning. It was insane.”

In the days immediately thereafter, Wu’s phone wouldn’t stop ringing. There was an avalanche of e-mails in his in-box. Paparazzi were camped out at the Au Bon Pain across the street from his office on West 37th Street in New York. Endorsement and book deals were streaming in, as were pitches for his own reality show. “There were a lot of inappropriate things,” he says of the blizzard of offers, including one for a housewares promotion. “I had to buckle down and say no. People wanted to make me into a television personality.”