Anna Sui
She is an American fashion designer. Sui is one of the most celebrated names in American fashion, known for her timeless designs and ability to transcend eras with historical and culturally inspired collections. She was named one of the “Top 5 Fashion Icons of the Decade� and in 2009 earned the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), joining the ranks of Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, and Diane von Furstenberg. Her worldwide luxury fashion brand includes clothing, shoes, cosmetics, eyewear, and accessories, as well as her renowned line of signature fragrances. 2
Early Time Sui was born on August 4, 1964 in Detroit, Michigan to French-educated Chinese emigrants. By the time she was four years old, Sui knew she wanted to be a designer. As a teen,
she read an article in Life Magazine about a girl who graduated from Parsons design school in New York and 3
then moved to Paris, where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton opened the girl a boutique. As Sui recalls,
“As a kid, you think ‘wow’, you’ve found the magic ticket...all you have to do was move to New York and go to Parsons.” Years later, when Sui went back and re-read the article, she realized the girl’s father was the legendary photographer, Irving Penn. Sui moved to New York and attended Parsons The New School for Design. 4
ANNA SUI Line
That year, Sui opened her first retail location at 113 Greene Street in New York City’s Soho District. The flagship store, with its lavender walls, red floors, antique black furniture, and signature dolly head mannequins has become a staple of SOHO fashion and has guided the aesthetic of Anna Sui stores worldwide. Evoking the Anna Sui lifestyle, “the stores have come to emphasize the epitome of culture in a continually shifting fashion world.”Over her career, Sui has also grown her brand internationally in the American, European, 5
Asian and Middle Eastern markets. Her iconic fashion shows, with their much-anticipated rock music and background designs, are a staple at New York Fashion Week. For the past two decades, Sui’s iconic collections have drawn on her travels around the world, with inspirations ranging from Belle Époque, Pre-Raphaelite paintings, Uzbekistan, to the American West. Sui designs and manufactures her signature collection in her New York City 7
headquarters on Fashion Avenue. In addition to her work as a designer, Sui has ardently fought to keep the industry alive and has spearheaded a campaign to “Save the Garment Center”, which was highlighted during Fashion Week in September 2008. Sui’s designs attract many famous clients such as Blake Lively, Naomi Campbell, Sofia Coppola, Liv Tyler, and Courtney Love. Anna Sui Shoes premiered on the runway for the fall collection in 1994. Manufactured in Venice, Italy, the shoe collection includes both day and evening styles, in velvet, silk, patent leather, snake and lizard skin, shearling a
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