Anna Sui
Every collection that I work on, I always think, Is this cool enough to wear to a concert?Collection: Cool
To me, fashion is like a mirror. It's a reflection of the times. And if it doesn't reflect the times, it's not fashion. Because people aren't gonna be wearing it.
I think that fashion has become such a big business and with globalization we are on new territory at this point. We are not just designing for a country we are designing for a world now.
Fashion should be fun and accessible.
When I was starting, there were wool mills in the U.S. that could make you anything. The U.S. used to produce the most beautiful cotton denim in the world. Now all that is gone.
Well, my whole thing is that I'm kind of like a show-off!
I love going to flea markets especially when I am traveling, because I love seeing the stuff of other cultures, handicrafts and things with historical content.
At the point when I wanted to become a designer, I didn't think about, 'Oh, but I'm a woman,' just like didn't think about like, well, 'I'm Chinese' or that 'I'm in Michigan.' You know, none of those things were obstacles to me. I just had this idea that this is what I had to do.
Every time that I wanted to give up, if I saw an interesting textile, print what ever, suddenly I would see a collection.
When I look at designer books I am sometimes puzzled why they don't share their inspiration, when it's obvious somebody had such great inspiration.
I live for fashion.
I think I'm a global citizen. My parents came from China, were educated in France and emigrated to the United States. And I think that opened up my mind to be able to live and work anywhere.
I love research. When there's something that I like, I want to know everything about it. I want to know exactly what was behind it, and where it went from there.
A piece of fabric can get me going.
Nothing's faster than the Internet.
I have a big responsibility to my licenses. All my licenses draw from and take ideas from the runway.
I don't have the luxury of making clothes just to make an effect. It can't be something totally frivolous, because my distributors have to have a successful season, too.
No one has ever found a solution for not doing a fashion show.
I never intended being a business person I wanted to be a fashion designer.
I think about that all of the time and I have this fantasy that I am going to work at a museum someday! I would love to do something like that!
I think you have to be in the right place at the right time. And understand that and know when it is your time and how you react to it and how you respond to it.
I think whenever people talk about the 'Anna Sui woman,' they're talking about someone that's probably kind of more downtown, and there's always like this ambiguity: Is she a good girl, or a bad girl?
I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit.
When punk really started to happen, it was a reaction against the disco craze of the time.
I always say the next big thing will happen in unexpected places - up and coming cities that aren't necessarily boom markets.
Longing and desire goes further than instant satisfaction. That's human nature.
When I started my own business, my main reason for designing clothes was that I wanted to dress rock stars and the people who went to rock concerts. It didn't go beyond that aspiration at that point.
I wanted to be a designer since I was a kid, and I was always attracted to the way rock stars dressed and the way their girlfriends dressed. I always thought that they were the most interesting people.
I love history. I love art. I like to mix it all together, but in the end it somehow has to all make sense.
I just love the way the '60s rock stars put themselves together, because they were like dandies and peacocks. They really lived out their fantasies - and dressed their fantasies.
To me if you're going have a show, it should be a show. It should be entertaining and take you on a journey.
I just love the whole idea of conversational prints.
I love punk, I love a lot of British Invasion bands, I love garage bands.
There are always different influences each season. It could be a person, it could be a piece of furniture; it depends on what I'm obsessing about.
Creating a book and creating a collection involve a lot of editing.
You have to focus on your dreams, even if they go beyond common sense.Collection: Dream
I’m always about optimism and exuberance. It’s what I feel about fashion.Collection: Fashion
I love the fact that fashion always changes, and I hate the fact that it always changes.Collection: Fashion
What people look to me for is a whole look. People come to me for icing on the cake, not a basic stretch pant.Collection: Cake
You just pray that something is going to hit you like lightning. Like a movie, a book, or a photograph, a painting, something that you can riff on it and learn more about it and explore it, and just go on a journey with it. So lots of times when I choose a theme, I'll also incorporate other things that I'm doing at that period.Collection: Book
The sexiest thing about a bikini is that it leaves something to the imagination, which is the best part.Collection: Imagination
The red library is Sui's tribute to fashion maven Diana Vreeland, who served as editor for Harper's Bazaar (1939-1962) and Vogue (1963-1961). My most precious collection is my bound Vogue magazines, .. and they're kind of like my Bible. I look at them all the time when I'm trying to inspire myself for a collection.Collection: Bible
You still get the sheer quality coming through but you're covered.Collection: Quality
From the season I did the butterfly faux tattoos on the models on the runway, every collection we do has to have a butterfly t-shirt or trim or print. People come to me for butterflies!Collection: Tattoo
I knew since the age of four that I wanted to be a clothing designer. I read an article in LIFE magazine about two young ladies that graduated from Parsons School of Design, and when they graduated they went to Paris and Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor opened a boutique for them. So I thought, "Oh, I just have to go to Parsons, that's all."Collection: School
Love this in the film, “Velvet Goldmine” it captures the excitement and the thrill at the moment of discovery!Collection: Discovery
Totally girly - love all the childish sounds.Collection: Girly