22 posts tagged "Anna Sui"
The Road To Bonnaroo: Karen Elson
Bonnaroo, one of the summer’s hottest music festivals (literally), takes place this weekend in Manchester, Tennessee. Year after year, the fest hosts some of the best artists around, everyone from Lil’ Wayne and Eminem to Florence + the Machine to The Strokes (and that’s just this year). As they head down south, Style.com checked in with a few of our favorite artists to see what they’re packing to beat the heat in style.
Karen Elson plays her first-ever Bonnaroo appearance this year, but she’s no stranger to the fest—so she knows firsthand what to expect. “You either rock the sweaty look or you try your very hardest to look like it’s not sweltering outside,” the model-turned-musician says. “I am not going to accept the sweaty look, so I am doing everything in my power to be the opposite.”
Since the release of her debut album, The Ghost Who Walks, in 2010, Elson has been performing in Southern Gothic-style frocks (often sourced from her own Nashville vintage shop, Venus & Mars.) “I am still trying to figure out my stage style,” she says, citing the Coen brothers’ films as a current source of inspiration. “I was always wearing long things last year. As I’ve kept performing, I have realized it’s really important to have a look.” Here’s what Elson will be bringing to Tennessee to make hers one to remember:
A custom, vintage dress by Anna Sui. “I almost always wear vintage Anna Sui to perform in. I just saw her last night and she gave me a couple of beautiful dresses to potentially wear. Or, there might be a little romper in the works.”
Nine West boots from her capsule collection for the brand. “I usually wear my custom Tabitha Simmons heels. Wearing a pair of beautiful high heels in a club is relatively pain-free, but it’s Bonnaroo and it’s muddy, so I am thinking boots.” (Above: In the Dirt boots from Elson’s collection for Nine West, in stores this August.)
Vintage sunglasses from Fabulous Fanny’s in New York City. “I lost my favorite Marc Jacobs tortoiseshell glasses! I shouldn’t be allowed to buy anything expensive because I lose or break them. I have to buy the cheap ones.” (Above: Vintage Norma Kamali sunglasses from Fabulous Fanny’s. For more information, visit www.fabulousfannys.com.)
Clinique Pore Refiner. “It’s my current obsession. It’s so smooth and I am really going to need it for the festival.” (Above: Clinique Pore Refining Solutions Instant Perfector, $18, available at www.sephora.com.)
Nars Highlighting Blush Powder. “I actually had dinner with François Nars last night. I just love his highlighter—the light one.” (Above: NARS Highlighting Blush Powder, $27, available at www.narscosmetics.com.)
Our Favorite Japan Benefit Tees And Tops
Last night, Maria Cornejo and husband Mark Borthwick hosted an event at Cornejo’s Bleecker Street store for the T-shirts and tanks they created together to benefit Japan. They’re far from the only ones. Ralph Lauren, Tory Burch, Anna Sui, and Opening Ceremony have all created for-the-cause tees, too, proceeds from which go to Japanese relief and rebuilding. Spend generously.
Top: Tory Burch tee, $29, ToryBurch.com; Opening Ceremony tee, $30, OpeningCeremony.us.
Bottom: Anna Sui tee, $20, AnnaSui.com; Ralph Lauren polo, $98, RalphLauren.com.
How Sui It Is
Anna Sui is a fashion lifer, with a 20-year career in the industry and, now, a 300-page retrospective coffee-table book to show for it. “As a designer, you never have time to look back because you’re always looking six months forward to next season,” Sui said at a signing of the book in New York last night. “To be honest, I’d completely forgotten about so much of the good stuff.”
Anna Sui, penned by the designer’s close friend Andrew Bolton, the curator of the Met’s Costume Institute, goes collection by collection through Sui’s label, interspersed with the many fashion editorials and boldfaced friends who’ve made her a force to be reckoned with from the start. After all, before she ever sent her first collection down the runway for Fall 1991, the Biba-wearing club kid was already dressing Madonna up in baby dolls. (A few of those boldfacers also contributed to the text: Jack White of the White Stripes—husband of Sui’s longtime muse Karen Elson—contributed a preface, where he notes that his favorite of his wife’s dresses always turn out to be Sui’s; Steven Meisel wrote the introduction)
Bolton wades through Sui’s wide-ranging fonts of inspiration, which include everything from Marie Antoinette to rococo pirates to Andy Warhol’s Factory parties—not to mention Sui’s greatest inspiration, music. “Watching one of Anna’s collections is like watching MTV,” Meisel writes. “You see the Clash, Nirvana, the Sex Pistols, the Smashing Pumpkins, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Red Hot Chili Peppers.” You also see, in Anna Sui, the procession of fashion greats from the nineties, as in the iconic finale of Sui’s 1994 grunge collection: the supe trifecta of Christy, Naomi, and Linda, strutting down the catwalk in feathered headpieces.
PLUS: For more Anna Sui, check out our video of Sui chatting with Marc Jacobs on the occasion of her CFDA Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award.
Seventh Avenue Saviors, Zac Without Susan, Officer Tamara, And More…
Designers from Anna Sui to Yigal Azrouël mobilized for yesterday’s Garment District rally, where protesters called for rezoning that would protect and, hopefully, create more manufacturing jobs. As per the demonstrators’ posters, supporting the fashion industry is “sew New York.” [WWD]
Susan Posen, a.k.a. Mom of Zac, stepped down from her role as acting CEO of her son’s company yesterday, a move that coincides with Susan Davidson’s recent hire. Insert “leaving to spend more time with her family” joke here. [WWD]
Tamara Mellon wore Dolce & Gabbana (and, one imagines, Jimmy Choos) to pick up her OBE today from the Queen. Can we expect a Union Jack heel from the newly minted Officer of the Order of the British Empire? Or, better yet, Her Majesty in stilettos? [Grazia]
And finally, your dress-like-a-Jersey Shore-star update: Snooki’s slippers are available for pre-order, but J-WOWW’s Filthy Couture line has been shut down. We’re calling that a lose-win kind of situation. [NY Mag and Radar]
The Big Business Behind “Made In New York”
This morning, representatives from the CFDA, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and the Design Trust for Public Space unveiled Made in Midtown, their report on New York’s historic Garment District. Designers Narciso Rodriguez, Reed Krakoff, Anna Sui, John Bartlett, and Yeohlee Teng were all on hand for the announcement of the report (and its accompanying Web site, where browsers can peruse its findings). Even if infographics aren’t your idea of a good time, it’s well worth a read to find out what comes before the Made in New York label. Namely, $31 billion in revenue (from the nine New York fashion companies on the Fortune 1000 list alone), more than 172,000 jobs (about 5 percent of all the government and private sector jobs in NYC), and more fashion businesses headquartered here than in Paris and Milan combined. Head to www.madeinmidtown.org to learn more.