You can have the most effective sound engineer on the planet, however regardless of how excessive you crank up an amp, a great outfit nonetheless hits the loudest onstage. It’s simply as true for Olivia Rodrigo’s princess-core promenade wrecks as it’s for Dave Navarro’s leather-and-lingerie combos circa Blood Sugar Sex Magic, and Madonna’s black baptism clothes from her Like a Prayer period.
And behind the seams of all these looks? It’s Anna Sui.
Born in Detroit and ate up a gentle food plan of Zeppelin and Cream, the designer moved to New York City simply in time for the sweet-tart collision of Ramones-era sweet punk and the hallowed, girly growls of Blondie, Sleater Kinney, and the Bangles. “I was always too young to go to clubs back home,” says Sui, “so by the time I got to New York to study at Parsons School of Design, I was really ready.”
Sui’s early social crew included type stars like designer Marc Jacobs and photographer Steven Meisel; she’s usually photographed with different mega-creatives like director Sofia Coppola and supermodel Naomi Campbell. But it’s Sui’s skill to riff together with rock ‘n’ roll’s infinite rhythms that has stored her label on the forefront of vogue tradition — and the highest of “add to cart” lists — for practically 40 years. (In different phrases, the lifespan of greater than two Olivia Rodrigos.)
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Among the best hits: Sui’s well-known “Grunge Collection” (1993), which homed in on the rising affect of Kurt Cobain on MTV and Claire Danes on common TV by taking slinky striped sweaters and floor-skimming floral clothes (worn with fight boots, of course) and cranking up their colour saturation and ultra-femme particulars like butterfly embroidery and glitter accents. (The designs have been so influential they now reside in a number of fashionable artwork museums.) In September 2004, Sui despatched studded prairie skirts, fringe leather-based jackets, bandana head scarves, and Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman blouses down her catwalk as Steven Tyler and Rufus Wainwright appeared on; months later, two sides of the pop spectrum — Jennifer Lopez and Hilary Duff — carried out in comparable looks. And after Julia Cumming from Sunflower Bean walked Sui’s Fall 2018 runway present in a sheer black costume dotted with tiny roses, the look grew to become as synonymous with TikTok as the primary 5 bars of a Doja Cat tune.
“If you listen to the soundtracks for each show, you’ll know what I was playing in my studio during the design process,” Sui says. “And then when people were coming to me, like Courtney Love or the Smashing Pumpkins, I would design for them based on the scene happening around them, but also just based on hanging out with them personally.” And that merger between a musician’s day-to-day self and their larger-than-life very best is what helped Sui make her magic.
We zoomed into the designer’s midtown Manhattan studio to get a take a look at her archives and upcoming assortment, and to listen to the tales behind some of the most iconic music looks from the ‘90s and Y2K to the present-day and the dreamworld of “rock ‘n’ roll heaven.”
MADONNA IN PARIS, 1991
“I was in Paris with my friend [photographer] Steven Meisel, and we were going to the Jean Paul Gaultier fashion show together. Madonna was friends with Steven, so we all went together. She was wearing a big Gaultier coat, and then when she took it off, it was my dress! I was like, “Hey!” She stated, “Oh, yeah, I noticed when I was putting this dress on that it had your name on it!” So I don’t imagine it was even a acutely aware factor; she simply actually favored the costume… After that, she’d be in our retailer fairly a bit… however that black costume, in the beginning of her new period of music, was actually an occasion for me.” [Editor’s note: Sui still makes a version of “The Madonna Dress.” It is always, always sold out.]
[Courtesy of Anna Sui]
CARLA BRUNI, ANNA SUI GRUNGE COLLECTION, 1993
“This was a moment when you could see what the models were looking for. They were like, “Oh, I hear you go vintage shopping every weekend! Where? Will you take me? What would you buy if you were me?” So I’m seeing these ladies, who will turn out to be type icons, discovering ‘40s fashion or vintage prom dresses at the flea market… And then on the runway, and in my store, I would mix a lot of vintage pieces with my own designs… So we identify this ‘grunge’ with Nirvana and different bands, however it was equally pushed by the ladies in New York who cherished garments and will discover secondhand garments for very low-cost, and they might deal with it virtually like a social occasion. It was an exercise you’d do with your mates.”
MICK JAGGER, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, 1993
“The first time we introduced men’s clothing in my collections was when Mick Jagger happened to be hosting Saturday Night Live. He wore one of my one of my pieces on SNL and then Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran came into our LA store… I try not to think too much about men’s or women’s when it comes to music and dressing musicians, because it’s really just all about creating the fantasy of who someone wants to be, and the world they’re trying to create with their music and their performances.”
[Photo by Gene Shaw]
DAVE NAVARRO, ANNA SUI FASHION SHOW, 1997
“I met him at a music festival! I was coming out of the elevator; the doors open, and there was Dave Navarro. I went, ‘Hey, Dave Navarro!’ and he went, ‘Hey, Anna Sui!’ and then we both ran in opposite directions. I remember thinking, ‘Oh gosh, I was so stupid!’ So when I saw him that night at a party, I went over and we started talking. Finally, I said, “You know, would you ever think about being in my show?” And he stated, “Yeah, if there’s lingerie involved!” And that’s what triggered the entire look. He actually requested it! So we began corresponding, and I used to be shocked at what an ideal e-mail author he was! Then simply earlier than my present, he got here and walked into my workplace, took off all his garments, and stated, ‘You’re the artist. I’m your clay. Mold me.’ Everyone in my workplace nearly fainted. We made him a customized leather-based jacket and pants, and Anthony Kiedis took the pleated satin skirt and wore it onstage. But we nonetheless have the runway camisole in our archives. I’m undecided concerning the panties.”
[Photo by Gerardo Somoza]
THE GIBSON GUITAR, 2007
“We’d used guitars in our shows and photo shoots before, but they’d just be, like, old guitars that we’d buy at Goodwill and then paint on. This was our one and only official collaboration with a guitar company. So Michael Economy, an artist I worked with a lot, he made the graphics for it. But so far, it was a one-time thing!”
[Courtesy of Anna Sui and Gibson Guitars]
KAREN ELSON, 2010
“I first met Karen when she was modeling, before she had any albums out. But I’d heard from other people that she had a wonderful voice. Eventually, she told me she was working on an album at Jack [White’s] studio, and when I heard it, I remember thinking, “Oh yes, you do have a wonderful voice,” but additionally that she’s not only a singer, she’s an artist! And watching her evolve as an entertainer has been unbelievable. She headlined [Café] Carlyle a couple of months in the past and she or he was only a star.”
[Photos by Raoul Gatchalian]
READY, STEADY, GO! 2022
“I noticed this documentary on Ready, Steady, Go! which was a music TV present within the UK within the ‘60s, I was totally intrigued and fascinated; I even bought the book and really, really studied it. I said, “What if we tried to recreate this at Bowery Ballroom?” in downtown New York. Not only the atmosphere, but the stark geometric graphics they used as set pieces? I love the low-fi of it all, and having kind of an imaginary rock show at a real rock space.”
[Courtesy of Anna Sui]
OLIVIA RODRIGO, 2021 + 2022 + 2022
“I think she’s amazing and [has] like the most incredible style. I think it’s her style and not somebody telling her, ‘Wear this; wear that.’ And you possibly can see that her character matches the best way she looks. I believe she’s very true to herself, so I used to be actually flattered after I noticed that she began sporting my items! I like to see a mixture of the outdated stuff and the brand new, too. It’s nice to know that women are nonetheless dressing the best way we used to do it after we have been simply out of college.”
THE PEPPERMINT LOUNGE, 2023
“Back in the ‘60s, there was an Italian restaurant on 45th street in New York. They decided to turn it into a dance club after-hours, and it became one of the hottest clubs in the world! And when I was a kid, we used to watch television and learn what the teenagers in New York were dancing to. We would aspire to that!… So for this show, I thought about Jane Holzer, who was a party girl in the pages of Vogue, dancing away in her couture outfit… We found a video of the [‘Peppermint Twist’] dance they used to do at this club online, and we had a choreographer teach the models for about an hour before the show. We wanted it to recreate that kind of party.”
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