Anna Sui Quotes

When I was starting, there were wool mills in the U.S. that could make you anything. The U.S. used to produce the most beautiful cotton denim in the world. Now all that is gone.

Longing and desire goes further than instant satisfaction. That's human nature.

The sexiest thing about a bikini is that it leaves something to the imagination, which is the best part.

When punk really started to happen, it was a reaction against the disco craze of the time.

At the point when I wanted to become a designer, I didn't think about, 'Oh, but I'm a woman,' just like didn't think about like, well, 'I'm Chinese' or that 'I'm in Michigan.' You know, none of those things were obstacles to me. I just had this idea that this is what I had to do.

I love going to flea markets especially when I am traveling, because I love seeing the stuff of other cultures, handicrafts and things with historical content.

Nothing's faster than the Internet.

You have to focus on your dreams, even if they go beyond common sense.

I have a big responsibility to my licenses. All my licenses draw from and take ideas from the runway.

I think I'm a global citizen. My parents came from China, were educated in France and emigrated to the United States. And I think that opened up my mind to be able to live and work anywhere.

I love research. When there's something that I like, I want to know everything about it. I want to know exactly what was behind it, and where it went from there.

Every collection that I work on, I always think, Is this cool enough to wear to a concert?

I live for fashion.

To me, fashion is like a mirror. It's a reflection of the times. And if it doesn't reflect the times, it's not fashion. Because people aren't gonna be wearing it.

I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit.

From the season I did the butterfly faux tattoos on the models on the runway, every collection we do has to have a butterfly t-shirt or trim or print. People come to me for butterflies!

What people look to me for is a whole look. People come to me for icing on the cake, not a basic stretch pant.

To me if you're going have a show, it should be a show. It should be entertaining and take you on a journey.

No one has ever found a solution for not doing a fashion show.

Fashion should be fun and accessible.

I think that fashion has become such a big business and with globalization we are on new territory at this point. We are not just designing for a country we are designing for a world now.

I don't have the luxury of making clothes just to make an effect. It can't be something totally frivolous, because my distributors have to have a successful season, too.

I think you have to be in the right place at the right time. And understand that and know when it is your time and how you react to it and how you respond to it.

Creating a book and creating a collection involve a lot of editing.

Every time that I wanted to give up, if I saw an interesting textile, print what ever, suddenly I would see a collection.

When I look at designer books I am sometimes puzzled why they don't share their inspiration, when it's obvious somebody had such great inspiration.

The red library is Sui's tribute to fashion maven Diana Vreeland, who served as editor for Harper's Bazaar (1939-1962) and Vogue (1963-1961). My most precious collection is my bound Vogue magazines, .. and they're kind of like my Bible. I look at them all the time when I'm trying to inspire myself for a collection.

Well, my whole thing is that I'm kind of like a show-off!