Designer to the stars

1/6/2011

NEW YORK -- (AP) -- Each runway show is a chapter in Anna Sui's life. It's a commentary on her interests, passions and mindset of the moment. Now each runway show is also a chapter in a new book, which, she says, is an autobiography in pictures. Seeing it all together, Sui notices some commonalities -- especially the influence of rock ‘n' roll -- and some aberrations -- like the joint surfer-hip hop moment -- but it all makes her feel both humbled and proud. "All I ever wanted to do was design clothes for rock stars and people who go to rock concerts. That I've been able to do that for so long is pretty amazing," Sui told the AP.

It's also pretty amazing that Sui can define the single moment her career took off in 1990: Madonna, on her way to a Jean Paul Gaultier fashion show in Paris, wore one of Sui's dresses. She could have chosen any one of the hundreds of designer frocks littering her hotel room, but the pop star-fashion diva picked hers. "It was the first in a chain of events that gave me the confidence to stage my own fashion show," Sui writes in the forward of Anna Sui, published by Chronicle.