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Advance reservations are required, space is limited.
Since her first catwalk show in 1991, Anna Sui has become known for creating fabulously original clothing inspired by intensive research into vintage fashion and popular culture. The subject of a major retrospective The World of Anna Sui held at NSU Art Museum (February to October 2021), her looks range from the exuberant Carnaby Street schoolgirl outfits worn by supermodels Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell in the first runway show in 1991, to the cowgirl and cheerleader modeled by Gigi and Bella Hadid during the Spring/Summer 2017 Americana-themed collection. Among her earliest influences was Polish-born Barbara Hulanicki who worked as a fashion illustrator before launching the influential fashion label BIBA in the early 1960s and her Mod London boutique BIBA in 1964. BIBA’s influence was global, including the young Anna Sui growing up in Michigan. Alongside the clothes, the décor and atmosphere of the BIBA boutiques with its mix of Art Nouveau and Art Deco styling would inspire Sui throughout her career. NSU Art Museum’s presentation of the exhibition added a section as an homage to Hulanicki as one of her muses.
Anna Sui is an American fashion designer. She was named one of the “Top 5 Fashion Icons of the Decade” by The New York Times in 2021 and in 2009 she earned the Geoffrey Been Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Born in the suburbs of Detroit, in 1964, Sui joined New York’s cultural underground at an intensely creative time in the 1979s, forming important relationshios in the worlds of fashion, photography, art, music, and design. Since her first catwalk show in 1991, Sui has inventively blended global art history, music and popular culture into her designs.
Barbara Hulanicki OBE is a fashion designer, born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1936, and is the famed founder of the Mod London boutique BIBA (1964-1975), which started a fashion revolution by attracting a young clientele and film and rock stars with its mini-skirts, floppy hats, feather boas, velvet trouser suits and cool vibe. With its stylishly decadent Art Deco atmosphere, the BIBA look defined an era. In 1987 Hulanicki moved to Miami where she designed hotels for Chris Blackwell in Jamaica and gave his South Beach Art Deco hotels their distinctive look in the early 1990s.
The World of Anna Sui was curated by Dennis Nothdruft for the Fashion and Textile Museum, London. The presentation of The World of Anna Sui at NSU Art Museum was generously sponsored by The Douglas A. Hirsch and Holly S. Andersen Family Foundation in honor of Jane B. Holzer. Additional support provided by The David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation.
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