After more than 20 years in business (she launched her first collection in 1980) Anna Sui is a New York fashion veteran. But despite her establishment status she’s managed to keep her cool factor intact throughout the years and, as a result, is a perennial favorite of NYC models and scenesters.

It would appear that 25 years in the business has done little to soften Anna Sui’s rebellious nature. This season, however, citing a need for a return to guidelines and etiquette, Sui mixed her signature playful textures and colours with traditional military uniforms worn by early American soldiers. The result? A quirky, streamlined collection that plays homage to fashion’s lasting obsession with ladylike charm.

Spring/Summer 2006 is in the air and Anna Sui is content to live in the past. Her inspiration: The Gazette du Bon Ton, a French magazine that published early 20th century fashion illustrations. For Sui this added up to a collection bursting with pretty dresses and a silhouette that was loose and uncluttered by too many accessories.

Anna Sui’s creative process is pretty straightforward: every season she takes stock of what’s inspiring her at the moment and translates it into a collection. This season’s inspiration? The late American Abstract Expressionist sculptor Louise Nevelson.

Anna Sui’s signature style is her thematic collections. After spending a summer glued to her tv, watching loads of old westerns and pouring over American history books, she was well versed in ruffled petticoats, denim and fringed leather. They were the perfect fixings for her wild, wild, west theme.

Anna Sui’s shows are buoyant cheery affairs. Her spirited sense of colour and love of bohemian referenced with nostalgia are sure crowd pleasers. Piling on prints, patterns, accessories and fur, Anna was dressing the sexy lady with an exuberance for life this season.

As the flower child of American fashion, designer Anna Sui often draws her inspirations from her travels abroad. This season she has just returned from Capri with beachwear on the brain. Screening surfing documentaries and a few classic beach party films, Sui finished with a mix of familiar and fun clothes that burst with modern surfer girl glamour.

With an on-the-short-side attention span and tastes that run all over the map, it’s not surprising that designer Anna Sui has an eclectic fashion aesthetic.
Her specialty is mixing up influences that have no business being together – last season her collection was part downtown club kid and part Conecticut country club. You’ll never guess what she brought together for fall 2003.

Anna Sui has spent the past few seasons carving out a niche on the New York Fashion calendar as that city’s bohemian queen – a guaranteed source of hippie glamour and a rose-tinted look at life, love and fashion. This season, however, Anna’s girl has left her rock star boyfriend for the country club charms of Tiger Woods.

For the past ten years, Anna Sui has been fashion's queen of the bohemian hippie-chick aesthetic, a look that's, once again, back in style. But for Anna it's much more than a trendy retro look; it's a full-on fantasy world. Enter here for the full Fashion File tour.