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

Interview, May, 1999 by Martine Sitbon

MS: Yeah, very cute. It showed your Alice in Wonderland side. In 1992 you opened a store in SoHo.

AS: That was maybe the best business decision I ever made. I had dinner with Zack Carr, who works at Calvin Klein, and he kept saying, "I think you should do a boutique because this way people will understand what your world is about." So the next day I was just walking down the street and I found the perfect place. That store was really a labor of love. We painted all the furniture ourselves. My brother came and helped hook up the stereo and hang all the posters. I think it was also important because what I was doing was a little bit different from the usual SoHo designers, with their high prices and expensive fabrics. I think [the proper setting] helped people understand where my clothes fit in. It also helped me focus on my customer.

MS: In Fall '93 you did a Victorian Collection, which I loved.

AS: That was when I was really obsessed with the black jet jewelry -

MS: - at Gray's antique market [in London].

AS: Before we'd even eat breakfast, we had to go to Gray's, and we would spend hours going through every bracelet and pair of earrings.

MS: People know your hipness and your incredible style, but they don't know how fanatical you can get about research.

AS: That's the thing I enjoy the most: learning about something I'm interested in. The Arts and Crafts Collection [in 1996] had a Bloomsbury influence, and I insisted you and I had to see Sissinghurst Castle [the home of writer Vita Sackville-West, in Kent, England]. We went to the Victoria and Albert Museum many times. And then we went to Charleston [the Sussex home of Bloomsbury painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant].

MS: The English Arts and Crafts period [1840-1922] is one of your favorites, isn't it?

AS: Yes. In fact, I have a new apartment, and I've been obsessing over [designer, potter, and novelist] William De Morgan tiles. I think I've driven everybody crazy. But I can tell you anything you want to know about tiles.

MS: I can't walt to see it. Having been through the process with you, I will enjoy every tile. You have some other new things going on right now, too. For instance, you've just launched your cosmetics line for women and men, as well as your fragrance, "Anna Sui." Your packaging is so interesting, because it's so personal.

AS: Yes. The packaging for both the fragrance and the cosmetics is really inspired by all of my things. The shapes have been influenced by all the furniture and mirrors I have that are rounded at the corners and go in at the sides - a shape they call "Bombay." And those tins I collect inspired the packaging.

MS: It feels special, like something an Individual could have owned for years or found on a visit to the flea market.

AS: That's what I always loved about Biba [a line of cosmetics from the '60s] - the colors, the black containers, the packaging with that great deco logo and the little line drawings of dancers or something printed in gold; it was always so identifiable.