Anna Sui
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Biography
According to her own anecdote, she started with her dolls and her younger brother's toy soldiers to play like they were at the Oscars, before making and designing some clothes imitating magazine photos. After graduating from high school Anna Sui moved to New York City to attend Parsons School of Design, where she started to work with close friend Steven Meisel who is today a fashion photographer. Her early days as a stylist from Meisel’s shoots include editorial for the Italian Fashion Magazine LEI.After leaving Parsons she worked for variety of junior sportswear companies. Sui's business continued to expand in the 1980s. In 1991, she launched her first runway show. It was in 1992 that she took a chance with a personal clothing line and opened her first boutique shop at 113 Greene Street in New York City's Soho District. This shop, with it's purple walls and red floors, reflects her taste for pairing flea market furniture and dolly head mannequins. According to relative Grant Sui, "The stores have come to emphasize the epitome of culture in a continually shifting fashion world."
The first of Sui's three freestanding boutiques in Asia opened in May 1997 in Tokyo. The second opened in Osaka in the fall of that same year. Another Osaka venue opened in 2000. Isetan Company Limited has attained the main license for the Japanese distribution of the women's collection and Mammina, a subsidiary of Isetan, is the distributor to department and specialty stores there.
In 1997, Anna Sui(安娜苏) Shoes premiered on her runway for fall 1997. Manufactured by Ballin in Venice, Italy, the shoe collection is comprised of both day and evening styles, and include velvet, silk, patent leather, snake and lizard skin, shearling and suede.
Anna Sui opened her Los Angeles boutique in 1999 in Sunset Plaza, in West Hollywood.
In 1999, Sui launched her signature fragrance and cosmetic line after signing with Wella AG, of Germany to develop it. In a three-sided arrangement, Wella shares the Anna Sui beauty business with Japanese cosmetics maker Albion, who holds the Anna Sui color cosmetics and skin care license. Under the agreements, Wella will produce and market Anna Sui fragrances while Albion introduces the Anna Sui color collection to Japan. Wella will sell the fragrances to Albion, which will distribute them inside Japan, while Albion will sell the color cosmetics to Wella for distribution outside Japan. For fall 2000, Sui Dreams, the second Anna Sui fragrance, launched worldwide. Since it's beginning, the fragrance line has expanded to include, Sui Love, Sui Dreams, Dolly Girl, and most recently, in association with Victoria's Secret, the fragrance Secret Wish.
She was called a designer who "never panders" by The New York Times, and named to Time Magazine's list of this decade's top five fashion icons. Anna Sui continues to design and manufacture her signature collection in her New York City headquarters. Sui's designs attract many famous clients such as Patricia Arquette, Christina Ricci, Cher, Naomi Campbell, Sofia Coppola, Courtney Love of Hole and James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins.
External links
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