Background and career
Anna Sui (Chinese: 蕭志美; pinyin: Xiāo Zhìměi; born August 4, 1955) is an American fashion designer. Her brand categories include several fashion lines, footwear, cosmetics, fragrances, eyewear, jewelry, accessories and home goods. Sui was named one of the "Top 5 Fashion Icons of the Decade" for 2000–2010, 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.
Sui is a second-generation Chinese-American born in Detroit, Michigan. Her father, Paul Sui (Chinese: 蕭惠光; pinyin: Xiāo Huìguāng) and mother, Grace Sui Fang (方光琪; Fāng Guāngqí) met while studying at the Sorbonne in Paris where Sui's father was studying engineering and her mother, painting. Her paternal grandparents were Xiao Yulan (蕭毓蘭; Xiāo Yùlán), a Tahitian-Chinese businessman, and his wife Qiu Daidi (丘帶娣; Qiū Dàidì). Her maternal grandparents were Fang Chih, a Chinese diplomat and his Japanese wife named Fang I-chih (born Masue Ueki). Sui is a matrilineal descendant of the prominent Fang clan of Tongcheng, Anhui, notable for its many scholars and philosophers. She is an 18th generation descendant of Fang Bao, an influential Chinese poet who founded the Tongcheng School of literary prose popular throughout the Qing Empire. Notable ancestors also include Fang Gongcheng, tutor of the imperial palace, and Fang Guancheng, Viceroy of Zhili seated at Tianjin from 1749 to 1768 amongst other Qing era scholars. Her niece is actress and model Chase Sui Wonders. By the time she was four years old, Sui knew she wanted to be a fashion designer. Sui's mother taught her about putting together a wardrobe, bringing a young Sui with her to shop for fabrics. Sui would spend hours watching her mother sew and would collect the fabric scraps to clothe her Barbie dolls and her brothers' army action figures. Through this process, Sui learned the basics of making clothing and soon she was putting together her own outfits. This was accomplished by buying pattern pieces for the sleeves of a dress, and swapping them to match other dresses, to create her own look for the garments. As a teen, she read an article in Life magazine about the achievements of Mia Fonssagrives-Solow and Vicky Tiel who graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York City and then moved to Paris, where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton opened a boutique with the girls. Sui credits reading this article as a pivotal moment in her youth, which gave her clear direction on her goals for her future.
Sui moved to New York and attended Parsons, but after finishing her second year, Sui was hired in 1975 by Erica Elias' juniors clothing label Charlie's Girls, where she learned by designing for sportswear labels and doing styling on the photography shoots of friend and former Parsons' classmate Steven Meisel. Sui's work as a stylist for Meisel's shoots featured in the Italian magazine Lei specifically were very well received. After the closing of Charlie's Girls, Sui worked for several other sportswear designers including Bobbie Brooks and Simultanee. During this time, she began designing and making clothes out of her apartment. Sui stated that she was inspired to branch out on her own by a desire to dress rock stars and people who attended their concerts. Indeed, during this period, the majority of her personal business was focused on targeting sales to music stores. While working for the sportswear company Glenora, she brought her collection of five pieces to a New York trade show, and caught the attention of New York department stores Bloomingdale's and Macy's. A few weeks later, in August 1979, those clothes were featured in a full-page Macy's ad in the Sunday edition of The New York Times. The manager at Glenora, where Sui was still on the payroll, was furious when he saw the advertisement in the Times and fired her on the spot. Left without a job, Sui took her $300 in savings and started a business out of a little corner of the living room in her apartment. For several years Sui ran the company out of her apartment, doing odd-jobs for spare income and reinvesting every penny of earnings into her business.
The 1980s was the height of "power-dressing", with companies such as Chanel, Lacroix and Versace setting the standard. Sui struggled to stand up next to the big-name fashion houses. Sui was one of the few designers of the period who distanced herself from the traditional fashion houses and explored the grunge fashion scene together with designers such as Marc Jacobs, Daryl K and Todd Oldham. Around 1987, Sui got the opportunity to move her line into Annette B, a showroom curated by Annette Breindel. Breindel, who had a history of nurturing young designers, was a major influence for Sui and helped the designer emerge onto the fashion scene. During this period, Sui finally was able to move her operation out of her apartment and into the garment district. By the late 1980s, Sui had gained a global cult-like following, getting the attention of Japanese fashion powerhouses such as Onward Kashiyama. Sui would go on to greatly expand Japanese operations in the mid 90s. At Paris Fashion Week in 1991, Sui received one of the first major breakthroughs of her career. Sui was driving with her friend Steven Meisel to see the Jean Paul Gaultier show. On the way to the show, they stopped to pick up Madonna, a friend of Meisel's. Madonna surprised Sui by wearing her clothing to the event. Madonna would later wear the same outfit again for Meisel's photoshoot for Vogue. Sui's first runway show took place later that year upon her return to New York City. In 1991, Meisel, Paul Cavaco and Sui's supermodel friends, Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista, got together and encouraged her to try a runway show. Sui rented a small space in the Meatpacking District and paid the models by giving them the clothes. The successful show was the biggest breakthrough of Sui's career, with The New York Times commenting in reference to Sui's celebrity runway models: "That those beauties [Campbell and Evangelista] were then at the height of their fame helped stoke the reception Sui got from buyers and the news media."
From her first show, Sui was known for her light-hearted, whimsical, homemade and entertaining approach to showcasing her collections. The influences came from contemporary shows by designers such as Thierry Mugler and Jean Paul Gaultier where one of the goals was to charm the audience with the atmosphere created. The atmosphere often had a distinct party vibe and the antics of guests and participants were described as a distinct cultural scene of the period. Starting in 1995, Sui's designs were showcased regularly in Vogue Patterns. Her debut with the style magazine featured dresses from her Spring/Summer 1995 collection inspired by period pulp comics and the puffed sleeve, square shouldered, floral dress fashion popular during the war rationing years of 1940s era fashion.
The designer opened her first retail location in 1992 at 113 Greene Street in New York City's Soho District. The flagship store was known for its red floors, antique black furniture, signature dolly head mannequins and its purple walls which Sui painted herself. In 1993, the Anna Sui Corporation opened a store in Hollywood at La Brea Avenue expanding coverage and controlling North American distribution. The same year, Sui introduced menswear into her runway collections with Mick Jagger later appearing on Saturday Night Live in one of the designer's suits. Later, in June 2015, Sui relocated her Soho flagship store to 424 Broome Street from its previous 23 year long location on Greene Street. The store moved out of the Broome Street space in late 2020.
