Fashion / Business & brands
Anna Sui
born 1955 · fashion designer
Detroit-born fashion designer whose rock-and-roll, vintage-inspired label became a global brand; she keeps returning to her hometown.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 71- Detroit years
- 1955–early 1970s
- Field
- Fashion, Business & brands
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Sui was born in Detroit to Chinese immigrant parents and grew up in Dearborn Heights, where hers was the only Chinese family in the neighborhood, before the family moved to West Bloomfield when she was in high school. She sewed her own clothes as a teenager and, after graduation, left Michigan for Parsons School of Design in New York. Her first runway show in 1991 launched a label known for mixing rock music, vintage prints and romantic styling, later extended to cosmetics, fragrances and accessories. She has kept close ties with Detroit: in 2014 she created a Mustang-themed collection with Ford for the car's 50th anniversary, and in 2015 her designs were shown at the Detroit Historical Museum in an exhibition on Detroit fashion. She also endowed a scholarship for fashion design students at the College for Creative Studies.
Highlights
- First runway show in New York in 1991
- CFDA Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award, 2009
- Mustang Unleashed collection with Ford Motor Company, 2014
- Featured in the Detroit Historical Museum's Detroit fashion exhibition, 2015
- Endowed scholarship for fashion design students at CCS Detroit
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Related place · 2015
Detroit Historical Museum
Her designs appeared here in the 2015 exhibition Fashion D.Fined on the past, present and future of Detroit fashion.
Related place
College for Creative Studies
The Detroit art and design college where she established an endowed scholarship for fashion design students.