Anna Sui: Spring 2009 Ready-to-Wear

[upbeat music]

[instrumental jazz music]

I love Anna, she s a great friend of mine

and I love to see what she does.

[instrumental jazz music]

So much fun and

full of fantasy.

[instrumental jazz music]

I like her clothes and I like

to come to her shows, they re fun.

[instrumental jazz music]

It s an election year and there seems to a real premium

on optimism at New York Fashion Week.

Anna Sui is a candidate for the Upbeat Party.

She gets my vote.

[instrumental jazz music]

A little bit of a red stain to the mouth, Tim.

[Tim] It s not Death on the Nile, it s Life on the Nile.

Exactly, Life on the Nile.

Very sunny and very healthy young ladies.

[upbeat music]

[Tim] There s a ravishing back story

to this collection, tell me.

I started thinking about Alexander Girard

and how he took folklore from Mexico and India

and turned it into mid-century modern.

In the middle of all this, I went to Egypt.

One of the things that really, really hit me

besides the beauty of Egypt was

these similarities in all these beautiful sunny places.

Pyramids, sand and a beautiful history about it.

[upbeat music]

To me, the overriding influence to Anna s work is

historicism and eclecticism.

To me, she s the ultimate postmodern designer.

Along with John Galliano,

they ve kept this idea of postmodernity in a way

which very few other designers have done.

I think that s ingenious.

[fast-paced rock music]

You re always going to have a lot of color

and a lot of fun, a lot of mixed up things,

a lot of mixed up prints.

She s a happy person and we need as much happiness

as we can get in this evil world we live in [laughs].

[fast-paced rock music]

Everything about fashion is how you approach your design

and she approaches it by picking up

something that s so new-launched

and she brings it to the catwalk in the most vivid way.

And the way she portrays fashion is

a kind of compassion that,

what I call it is a cultural pragmatism.

[fast-paced rock music]

When she first started in 1991, it was always about

using local talent and local craftsmanship.

It s something which really comes across in her work.

And her work has very much of an artisanal

sort of feeling to it and I think

this collection more than any other,

the embroideries, the fabrics, the use of particular detail

is very much a strong message in her collections.

One of the things I m anarchic for is reviving

The Garment Center, saving it, keeping it alive.

♪ La la la la la la la la ♪

♪ La la la la la ♪

Her clothes express a kind of exuberance

and a relationship with different cultures

and she does it and there s not many designers who do it

with such a feeling of integrity.

♪ La la la la la ♪

[Tim] When people look at your clothes in 500 years,

what do you think they ll be thinking?

Oh, I hope they smile because that s what I try to do

in every collection is to make people happy.

[applause]

[upbeat music]