New York Fashion Week Day 7: Happy Surprises With Anna Sui

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Believe it or not, The Shophound does not actually get invited to every single show.
We know, SHOCKING, right?
We had never been to an ANNA SUI show, and after seasons of dutifully requesting, we had pretty much given up hope that she would ever invite us to her perennially popular runway. But then, a few weeks ago, to our delighted surprise, an invitation arrived in the mail with its seat assignment printed neatly on the back. We had pegged it as one of our Fashion Week highlights (especially since PHI was now permanently off the schedule), and she did not disappoint.
Sui is never shy about her inspirations, and this season she looked to the Arts & Crafts movement of about a century or so ago which was clear from this season's elaborate backdrop painted to look like a stained glass landscape. There were lots of beautiful antique prints piled atop each other and splashed on tights. She even designed a special T-shirt based on James McNeill Whistler's Peacock Room in the Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. But of course that's only one design element in Sui's synthesis of stimuli. If grunge and layering have emerged as key trends this season, those are two ideas that have always been in the center of this designer's wheelhouse. Perhaps more than any other American designer, her collections are always recognizably hers, and this season, the trends came to Anna Sui, where she welcomed them home for a big feast like any good mother would.
The production levels were high, and, as always, the model lineup was an all-star cast, opening and closing with one of Karen Elson's now rare appearances and featuring returning champs like Agyness Dean, and others who hold out for the best like Sasha Pivovarova, Natasha Poly, Snejana, Vlada, and Sessilee. Essentially, nobody turns down an Anna Sui casting call.
There was certainly a high energy level at the show, where the anticipation was able to perk up a weary fashion flock nearing the end of what for many will only be the first leg of an international runway show marathon. Sui's evening show typically attracts a lot of fans. We entered the big Tent alongside a statuesque woman in an elaborate embroidered ivory charmeuse gown, and lots of the designer's fans wore their beast Sui. We were mostly free from what was passing for celebrity this season, Peaches Geldof was there squirming in the front row with her purple-haired boyfriend. Model Irina Lazareanu, usually stalwart on Sui's runway, took in the show from the audience, and a troupe of Asian girls decked out by the designer turned out to be the Wonder Girls, a Korean singing group trying desperately to break through to the American public.
On each seat -even up to the back rows, bless her heart- Sui left a mini shopping bag featuring 4 ml of Rock Me! eau de toilette, two eye color accents, and a gold guitar keychain ion a little velvet bag.
Our thanks to whoever it was at Anna Sui and KCD who decided that it was finally time to invite us. We have had to skip several shows this season (more on that later) but this one was a can't-miss on our schedule, and one of the most satisfying of the season.