#TBT: Anna Sui's Glorious Mash-Up of Hippie and Grunge
Naomi Campbell opens Anna Sui’s spring 1993 show.
In purple pasties and rainbow knit pants, naturally.
Carla Bruni wears skater shorts in Anna Sui’s spring 1993 show.
Kristen McMenamy in a cropped Victorian-inspired bed jacket.
The androgynous model channels the famous club kid Michael Alig with glitter eyes and platform shoes.
A young Kate Moss walks in Anna Sui’s spring 1993 show.
Karen Mulder wears the perfect ‘90s dress.
Courtney Love or Angela Chase from 'My So Called Life’ would’ve rocked this dress well.
Supermodel Nadja Auermann walks in Anna Sui’s spring 1993 show.
We could see Winona Ryder 'Beetlejuice’ era in this vintage-inspired dress.
Kristen McMenamy wears a maxi dress and red satin T-strap platforms.
Lucie de la Falaise walks in Anna Sui’s spring 1993 show.
Angelika Kallio wears a knotted, striped beanie and phat pants.
Do you remember these hats?! We tried to make our own, and failed. Carrying a lunch box as a purse, and wearing wide-leg phat pants were two crucial ‘90s trends. I am guilty of doing both.
Helena Christensen walks in Anna Sui’s spring 1993 show.
Kristen McMenamy wears a perfect Anna Sui dress.
This dress would’ve been perfect for 'Seinfeld’s' Elaine Benes, or moshing at Lollapalooza.
Anna Sui makes a modern version of the Qipao.
The traditional Chinese Qipao is made modern with devoré fabric and a tulle underlay.
Kate Moss and Zach Siegel are the perfect ‘90s runway couple.
Kate wears a Qipao with a knit beanie, while Zach wears the perfect mix of hippie and raver fashion.
Fashion’s ‘90s obsession has been riding high for years now, with déjà vu-inducing baby doll dresses, crushed velvet body suits, crop tops, and flatform sneakers appearing everywhere from ASOS to Saint Laurent. However, the last few seasons, designers from Tom Ford to Chloe (trickling all the way down to Zara), are taking inspiration from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s boho moment for the umpteenth time. With New York fashion week kicking off today, we’re reminded of the last time we saw the ‘90s and ‘60s mix in a big way — Anna Sui’s spring 1993 Hippie collection.
We tend to remember spring 1993 as the season grunge hit the mainstream, with Perry Ellis’s “grunge” collection designed by a young Marc Jacobs. After that controversial collection showed, Jacobs was fired, the collection was never produced, and Jacobs’ grunge muses Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love burned the samples he’d sent them (ouch). This is the same season Anna Sui showed what she called her “antique clothing” hippie collection. Supermodel Naomi Campbell opened the show in rainbow knit bellbottoms and butterfly nipple pasties under a cropped suede vest, accessorized with love beads, an embroidered backpack, and a crocheted skull cap.
The collection also had a heavy club kid influence, with glitter make-up decorating the faces of every major ‘90s model from Kate Moss to Helena Christensen, raver “phat pants” and faux-Dickies skater shorts making an appearance. The looks were wildly inventive and diverse. There were the clubby “candy ravers;” Victorian dolls wearing devoré prints, beading, and bordello boots; Old Hollywood glamor girls in 1930’s bias-cut dresses with satin and lace bed jackets; crescendoing into a finale of traditional Chinese Qipao dresses.
Sounds like a lot of time travel — but Sui did it all with utmost respect for history, skillfully weaving together the decades she and previous designers drew on for inspiration. For example, Sui referenced the Victorian era and textile artists like William Morris, whose prints inspired the floral brocade and velvet look we identify the ‘60s (think Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin in a poet’s blouse). The result was an organic flow from decade to decade that felt coherent despite its many influences.
Another interesting thing to note is the sheer breadth of the collection — there were 56 looks in this show! Today the average is 25-30. These 56 looks would’ve been in Sui’s store for 6 months, compared to now, when a designer’s fall or spring collection lives for a matter of weeks with between-season lines like pre-fall and resort giving a constant supply of new buys to fashionistas world wide.
Sui’s medley of many eras also felt very true to the growing popularity of vintage clothing happening in the 1990s, which also inspired Jacobs’ grunge collection. Both of these designers were young, on the rise in their careers, and tapped into pulse of the times. While Jacobs might’ve rocked out to indie-punk bands like Sonic Youth, and Sui to galactic club music like Dee-lite, where they both cross over is their direct reference to vintage clothing in their designs. In a quote Sui gave to the Chicago Tribune in 1992, months after this collection walked down the runway, she explains:
“I keep saying ‘70s because, to me, that was the last time people—women—dressed to express themselves, and I think then they got caught up in career dressing and then status dresses.”
With so many designers rehashing the 70s again, we wonder if they might feel the same way. According to her website, Sui herself continues to be inspired by the era. Meanwhile Marc Jacobs has changed his aesthetic every other season, but this fashion week, one of the hottest tickets is his ‘70s-themed party, with its dress code of “JERRY HALL SIDE-SWEPT HAIR, SEQUINS, GOLD LAMÉ TURBANS.” Maybe the relative safety of modern fashion is leading us to look back on the time when sex, music, and fashion ruled. Sure sounds more interesting than keeping up with the Kardashians.
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