Anna Sui knows how to get behind a theme. For spring, she did prairie dressing. New York Fashion Week suddenly had a 1960s flavor, and you could just picture her trawling flea markets and vintage archives for inspiration. Sui sent almost 50 looks of maximal Western prairie fare down the runway, all of it exuberant and feminine.
She mixed up patterns, from vines and florals to plaids, birds, and bandana and scarf prints. Almost everything had a ruffle here and a pin-tuck there, and almost everything was chiffon. It was soft and pretty. Who doesn’t want a breezy, floaty printed top in summer, to pair with shorts or jeans, or to wear over a bikini? The clear winner was a plaid apron dress with ruffle trim over a waxed-linen leg-o’-mutton shirt. The collection, in my opinion, would have stood very well without accessories, but with long, feather-strewn rope necklaces with wood, turquoise, bone, and crystal beads by Erickson Beamon, feather and dried-grass headpieces, and boots and shoes by Fiorentini + Baker – I was actually in lust. This is why Anna Sui has such staying power.
