Anna Sui’s Eclecticism Shines For Fall 2014 (Runway Review)

The Inspiration: It’s no surprise that an eclectic designer like Anna Sui draws inspiration from many places. From her Facebook: “Anna Sui set out to MOD-ernize Anna May Wong’s style from the film Piccadilly (1929). The collection is inspired by Serge Luten’s photographs for Shiseido, fashion illustrations from La Gazette du Bon Ton, Biba, art deco jewelry, the interiors of Rose Cummings, and chinoiserie rooms and pavilions from European palaces and features the colors jade, cinnebar and kingfisher blue.” She also revealed that she was reading Angelica Houston’s autobiography while creating this collection, which included a story about Houston’s mother sending Irish tweeds to Coco Chanel to be made into outfits. Sui did her own version of Coco-esque tweeds on her own runway. 

Really cleverly, Sui has provided a Fall 2014 mood board on Pinterest!

The Look: The overwhelming color story here was red, red, red. It worked well with several of Sui’s themes for the season and is of course one of the designer’s signatures. But Sui’s runway is ever a kaleidoscope, and red transtioned into greens, blues and purples. Chinoiserie patterns mixed with bold black and red stripes and all manner of prints often in the same look, sometimes in the same piece. Fur was big, as it has been on most runways for Fall 2014.

The Accessories: There were some boxy shoulder bags and a few crossbody bags but overall accessories were minimal to allow Sui’s loud looks to speak their volume unobstructed.

The Beauty: There was a red, red lip from Pat McGrath, and every model seemed to have her own custom Garren New York hairstyle depending on her personal style. This is nice to see when most runways feature cookie-cutter beauty looks applied to girls of all types indiscriminately. Amusingly, the men’s hair was inspired by Jared Leto’s “man bun.”

The Casting: Joan Smalls, Karlie Kloss, Esmeralda Seay-Reynolds, Ju Xiaowen, lots of recognizable faces on the catwalk.

The Takeaway: This was Anna Sui. The designer’s aesthetic is instantly recognizable while branching off in innumerable directions at once. It always comes back to a signature Sui look and this runway was full of pieces for the brand’s fans to fawn over come fall.

images: IMAXtree