Anna Sui takes the runway underwater
For her Spring/Summer ‘24 collection, designer Anna Sui took her looks under the sea to an octopus’ garden. Presented on September 10th in person and livestreamed on Instagram, the collection featured 34 looks. In her show notes Sui shared that “one of the most gorgeous sights [she’d] ever seen [was] the underwater coral reefs and sea life when [she] visited Australia’s Gold Coast. The reality of this and all the coral reefs around the world disappearing [had] shocked [her] into realizing the fragility of this world.” The collection certainly embodied the delicate nature of the sea with its colors, fabrics, silhouettes, and textures. Sui celebrated the sea and its beauty with her keen eye.
The palette stayed true to her predilection for pastels with pops of bright kelly green, neon orange, and hot pink–with the occasional neutral oatmeal. Which really shone brightly with fabrics like metallic and iridescent jacquards, botanical denim, opalescent knits, colorful ginghams, and floaty organza among others. The metallic, iridescent, and pearlescent fabrics with sequined pieces and flouncy sleeves mimicked jellyfish floating along in the sea. These fabrics contrasted beautifully with the more structured silhouettes like skirt suits and denim.
And to top it all off, the accessories were just as shimmering. Iridescent crochet hats and bags, rippling kerchiefs, jumbo sequined shoulder bags (remember those bags with the shiny discs from the aughts? Those are coming back! But these bags also come in velvet and print), and mini bags made of terry cloth or mother of pearl populated the runway. As for shoes, John Fluevog created tie-dyed leather sandals and sequined mules as well as metallic leather mules. In another collaboration, Erickson Beamon created the jewelry swathed with shells, iridescent beads, and bubbles which matched swimmingly with Sui’s eyewear collection.
Sui’s sea siren song paid reverent homage to an integral part of our planet. Driven by climate anxiety, she chose to express her admiration into an exciting offering for spring and summer of next year. In addition to capturing the essence of the ocean, Sui shared a resource in her show notes for viewers to learn more about the importance of conservation.