Anna Sui gave copies of her new book, The Nineties x Anna Sui, to guests at her spring show. Reflecting on the decade captured inside the new Rizzoli publication, she said, “I think people will be surprised by how different and lo-fi it was back then.” Though there are many more photographers backstage and PRs in the front of house at Anna Sui today, attending her shows can still sometimes feel like a throwback to a different time in fashion—one more motivated by personal passions than bottom lines. The words pure and true come to mind.
Sui, of course, has never been short on personal passions. This season, she zeroed in on D.H. Lawrence, the English author of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, who entered self-imposed exile in 1919—a “savage pilgrimage,” he called it—after enduring harassment for being accused of spying during World War I. “He ended up in Taos, New Mexico, at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House, which was this literary and creative enclave of Ansel Adams and Georgia O’Keeffe. Millicent Rogers [the Standard Oil heiress and fashion plate] was coming around at that time, and it was a kind of utopia where they could have their alternative lifestyles and live very freely, not be constrained by society,” said Sui.
Sounds utterly delightful, no? Dennis Hopper thought so. When he discovered the place while shooting Easy Rider in the late 1960s, he bought it and turned it into his “Mud Palace.” Sui channeled both eras, Luhan’s and Hopper’s. “What I loved about Lady Chatterley was she kind of came undone and let her passions take over,” said the designer.
Lawrence’s heroine influenced the boudoir-ish vibes of the collection, from the lingerie pastels of the palette to the lace-edged slips and peignoirs. The results were more insouciant than sexy. Despite her decades in business, Sui has developed quite the youthful fan base of late. Chalk that up to the vintage-store-treasures feel of her clothes and the playful way she puts them together: a plaid cami over an eyelet babydoll over stripy pants, or tablecloth lace pj’s topped by a matching slip topped by a pointelle cardigan. Extra points for the Millicent Rogers curls and the electric blue eye shadow.
