Thu 25th May
“Clothes have to be fun, otherwise, who wants to bother?” says Anna Sui of her retrospective exhibition, The World of Anna Sui, the first of any American designer to be shown in the UK, taking over London’s Fashion and Textile Museum from tomorrow. It’s a statement that reflects her rich but playful body of work – work designed not just as stuff to wear, but clothes to entertain, to make you smile. And her irreverent approach to design means a chronological exhibition is out of the question – the show instead arranged thematically. That said, we begin in a room dedicated to Anna’s influences and an introduction to what fuelled her imagination as she grew up – there are beautifully tailored suits from the house of Biba, a slinky Ossie Clark trouser paired with floating, ethereal dresses, and plenty of Zandra Rhodes prints – elements found in one way or another throughout her 25 years of work.
And she’s wearing a Zandra Rhodes gown today as she leads a small group of us around the main exhibit – a room dedicated to her career long interest in ‘archetypes’, presented in a way that feels like a small porthole into her brimming imagination. Brightly coloured Tiffany stained glass lamps hang from the ceiling illuminating mannequins stood clustered into cliques, like a sort of surreal high-school disco stand-off. Punks stood in one corner, all zippers and fishnets, while another corner pays homage Sui’s love of 60’s British Mods, and her first runway show back in 1991. Schoolgirls, surfers and hippies are all present (with a smattering of the androgynous looks from her AW08 show), so too the Americana-tinged designs that formed her SS17 collection, modelled on the runway by Gigi and Bella Hadid. Other glimpses of Anna’s world come courtesy of her famed mood boards, as well as a shout out to the friends that have helped her get to where she is now. Who’s anything without friends? Especially when those friends happen to include Steven Meisel, Naomi Campbell and Marc Jacobs. Good company indeed.
‘The World of Anna Sui’ is on at The Fashion and Textile Museum from 26th May to 1st October
