Oui, sui! - interview with fashion designer Anna Sui - Interview

Interview, May, 1999 by Martine Sitbon

Sui generis, they say in Latin, meaning something is in a class all its own . . .

Delving into her obsessions Bloomsbury, rock 'n' roll, Uzbekistan - and transforming them into something totally new, Anna Sui is sui generis. Here she's interviewed by fellow fashion designer Martine Sitbon

MARTINE SITBON: I remember first meeting you in the early '80s, when you were working as a stylist and designer.

ANNA SUI: That's right. From the moment we met we realized we were rock 'n' roll fanatics. One of the first times you came over to my house, we watched that video I had taped off television - The British Invasion. We could both talk about the lead singer of the Yardbirds for hours.

MS: Not many people in fashion can do that. Which leads me to my first question: What was it like when you moved to New York from Detroit in the '70s? I know you were very Involved in the punk rock scene.

AS: It was fantastic. New York still had a real underground then. There was so much happening, so much music, so many creative people around. There were clubs like CBGB's and Max's and the Mudd Club. There was this circle of people you searched out every night to see what was happening. From that circle, many went on to become famous. We were all having a good time, but we were also trying to become something.

MS: The music clearly Influenced your work.

AS: My initial idea for a collection was to design cool clothes for rock stars. [laughs] It didn't go beyond that I wanted to sell to rock 'n' roll boutiques in every major town. My idol was [actress and model] Anita Pallenberg. From the moment I saw Performance [1970], I would save every little tiny picture I could find of her.

MS: Didn't you work as a stylist for a rock magazine at that time?

AS: Yes. New York Rocker. I always want to find out more about whatever I'm obsessed with. So if it was a musician like Richard Hell, of course I had to see what his house looked like and ask him a million questions.

MS: That was when you were a student at Parsons School of Design, no?

AS: Right after. Parsons had been my dream school. I had read about two girls who went there, graduated, and went to Paris, and then Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton opened a boutique for them. And I thought, "OK, all I have to do is go to Parsons." When I reread the story as an adult, I realized it was Mid Fonssagrives and Vicki Tiel. I hadn't understood that Mid was [model] Lisa Fonssagrives's daughter and her stepfather was [photographer] Irving Penn. As a kid you don't see the connections that lead to things. You just see going to Parsons, then graduating and going to Paris. So that's how I decided to go to Parsons.

MS: You met your good friend [fashion photographer] Steven Meisel there.

AS: And we've been best friends ever since. At Parsons, the fashion students weren't encouraged to mingle with the other students, but of course I always liked to see who else was in the school. I remember seeing Steven [who was an art student] in a drawing class one day and thinking he was just the most beautiful guy. Then I ran into him at a club one night. Since then I've always been in that circle of friends. I had an apartment near school, and everybody hung out there all the time. It was like the clubhouse.

MS: You also began your business out of your apartment. What was that like?

AS: When I started I ran the business out of one corner of the living room. Little by little, it took over the whole room, until we outgrew the space. When we moved to real offices, Steven and Paul Cavaco [now fashion director at Vogue] said to me, "All right, now that you have a real office, you have to do a real fashion show."

MS: So that's how you decided to do your first runway show, in 1991.

AS: I was forced. [laughs]

MS: Poor child. They didn't know what they were doing to you.

AS: Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell also pushed me. They helped me get the models, and Steven and Paul taught me how to organize and present a show. Since then it's been nonstop. You were a big inspiration, Martine, because I saw how your collections were created around things that you loved and were on your mind.

MS: Your first collection was an instant success.

AS: Actually it had started the season before, when Linda began wearing my dresses in Europe and I started getting phone calls from other models in Paris asking for dresses. I think the models felt like finally here were some clothes for them, not like they were dressing up in Mommy's clothes. The vibe was a little younger and a little more street. Eventually so many girls were going to their fittings at Chanel wearing my dresses that apparently Karl Lagerfeld began asking, "Anna, Anna, who is this Anna?" I decided that if these girls liked my dresses, then maybe other people would, too - it gave me the confidence to do my first show. Also, Madonna wore the dresses in Paris at that time. That was when I was doing my first babydoll dresses.

MS: I love when you do those because they're always so mature. [laughs]

AS: That comes from the lining, which was fitted very sexy. Since the outside of the dress - the A-line part - was chiffon and see-through, you got both the babydoll shape and the womanliness beneath it.