Anna Sui in the study with a candlestick.
Anna Sui is concerned with being the “right type” of rich, but aren’t we all? On social media, the conversation is constantly negotiating which nepo babies deserve the fame and which wealthy people have poor taste. Trends like Quiet Luxury attempt to decipher what differentiates New Money from Old Money.
Sui’s FW25 Ready to Wear collection at NYFW, inspired by the madcap heiress archetype, purports that the right type of rich woman is brash and eccentric, someone who glamorously bucks convention. Tweed, costume jewelry, equestrian pants, and bedazzled sunglasses. The collection is bundled in a texturally interesting array of jewel tone patterns and dripping with fur. It's a black sheep socialite with a transatlantic accent.
Peggy Guggenheim & Barbara Hutton are namechecked as examples of women who, as stated in the show notes, “live lives that were purely driven by fabulosity, transcending the mundane to defy expectations to be demure, to conserve.” In the swinging palazzo pants, sherpa lined jackets, and 1970s color pallet, one could also pick out references to Baby Jane Holzer, who Sui has long credited as a source of inspiration. Notably, in addition to being vivacious and colorful characters in their time, Guggenheim, Holzer, and Hutton were all patrons of the arts – their frivolous fashion spending did a lot to support the couture designers of their time.
There are moments of youthful clumsiness in the accessorizing: a felt rosette applique on look 13, sneakers and knee socks on look 21, and faire isle fingerless gloves throughout. The juxtaposing elements do less to evoke ideas of nonconformity within rigid upper crust society and instead remind me of adolescents raiding some fabulous older woman’s closet for a game of dress up. At other times, retro details remind one of a (probably single and childless) glamorous older woman. While the cast of models on the runway were all quite young, I would have liked to see how accessories like costume jewelry brooches and fur cuffs could have been styled as fresh and interesting on older models. A collection for Etheline Tenenbaum could have been more transgressive and interesting than one for Margot. I think that at least a few older models would have elevated the runway from a juvenile put-on to a fuller embodiment of the archetype in question.
Muccia Prada, of her SS96 Ready-to-Wear Collection said that she designed colorful clothing for people who wear black. With the trail of all-black looks on at the tail-end of Sui’s FW25 runway, she does the opposite. These are monochromatic black outfits for women used to wearing vibrant color, bringing to mind the fabulous heroines of classic black-and-white films in their jarring colorlessness.
While the Anna Sui brand is not associated with the lunching lady buyer, it makes sense that this elite clientele looms large in her mind. Sui’s childhood love of fashion was fostered by the grand department stores in her hometown of Detroit that catered to the wealthy wives of motor execs. Sui came up in the apparel industry at a time in New York when Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s buyers visited trade shows to poach up and coming designers for their discerning shoppers. Obsessed with workmanship and craft, Sui is vocally opposed to ever offering any sort of Gen Z geared diffusion line — she desires a customer who cares about quality.
Sui also seems to desire a customer with character. True to her punky roots, she cares about personality: the personality of the models she works with and the personality of the rockers she dresses. Madonna and Debbie Harry and Winona Ryder and Nicole Kidman and Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista have all been both customers and friends. With her FW25 runway, Sui has crafted not just a collection of clothing but also a character, her ideal customer. This imagined woman shares Sui’s passions for quality workmanship and historical fashion allusions, perhaps due to an inherited closet of vintage designer gems. She is Old Money, but her wealth doesn’t whisper. In all likelihood, her reckless lifestyle will diminish her fortune by her life’s end. But, most importantly, this woman refuses to conform. 🌀 7.2