Fashion Designer Anna Sui

Fashion designer Anna Sui earned a reputation for bringing a designer's sensibility to wild-child, rocker clothes with a vintage spin. A lover of pop culture, Sui taps into all decades and motifs equally, depending on which way her mood swings.

Born in 1964, the daughter or Chinese immigrants and growing up in Dearborn, MI, Anna's lifelong dream was to design clothes. At age four, she decided that she would become a designer and started to make her own clothes. She mixed a very serious approach to learning her craft with eccentric ideas, such as vowing to not to wear the same outfit twice in one year. Before the end of her senior high school year, she was accepted to Parsons School of Design in New York. After two years at Parsons, Anna styled with friend Steven Meisel and designed for several sportswear companies before launching her first collection in 1980.

Anna Sui's business continued to grow throughout the 1980s, and in 1991 she premiered her first runway show. The following year she opened her first flagship store on Greene Street in Soho, New York. The boutique's vibrant mix of black Victorian furniture, purple walls, papier mache dollyheads and rock n' roll posters closely reflects Anna Sui's personal decorating style and has been the model for all of her shops. The late 1990s was a time of significant growth for Anna Sui; she embarked upon a hugely successful expansion in the Far East, where she quickly established a huge cult following. She also launched cosmetics, fragrance, shoe and accessory licenses. Since its 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.

Today Anna Sui has 32 boutiques in five countries and her collection is sold in 300 stores in over 30 countries. She 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, Mischa Barton, Christina Ricci, Cher, Naomi Campbell, Sofia Coppola, Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff, Maria Sharapova, Nicole Richie, Liv Tyler, Courtney Love of Hole and James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins. In early 2007, Anna Sui, Twinkle by Wenlan and Betsey Johnson dresses were big sellers in the Macy's department's new spring fashion line.

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