The designer's Spring 2024 collection is a marine motivated call for change.
Anna Sui presents her first ever message collection in the form of her spring 2024 ‘Octopus’s Garden’; a thalassic early-2000s spectacle born from the designer's adoration for the beauty of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, and her dismay at its bleaching. In her show notes, Sui explains her recent trip to Australia’s gold coast bought the realisation of ‘the fragility of everything’, and thus, her love letter to the watery kingdom was written.
Opting for the intimate theatre of the Crosby Hotel in place of the usual runway setup, Sui opens her collection with the angsty sea themed tune Down by the Water by PJ Harvey. In the background, seascape projections flicker. It is footage from director George Méliès Under the Seas and The Kingdom of the Fairies, a unique choice, but unsurprising from Sui, who consistently uses cinema as design inspiration, with her 2014 spring collection taking motivation from the eccentric hues of Wes Anderson films.
While Sui noted she felt ‘shocked’ at the destruction of the barrier reef, she does not present a collection filled with anger, instead opting to celebrate the beauty of the ocean and it’s landscape.Taking the seascape as it is presented through artistic cinema, as well as documentary My Octopus Teacher, Sui presents a whimsical and intricate collection.
Sui appears to focus on the motion of water, both in her use of fabric and model choreography. Opting for thin, flowy fabrics, that seem to flutter around the models like tiny whirlpools. Most notably, a long mesh jacket adorned with seaweed-adjacent green metallic appliques that flicker individually—the base of the jacket is the sea disrupting a bed of magical seaweed. The models movement is slow but smooth, an attempt to mirror the movement of a small wave.
Sui’s use of metallics is also notable, with the collection providing a couple of dark purple and blue polychromatic pieces, as well as heavily featuring sequins and iridescent details. Sui explains in her show notes that she hoped to reflect the shine of mother of pearl, but it could also be said that she mirrors the shimmer of the sea under the sun through these choices. Sui’s use of shimmer is most notable in her dress over trousers ensemble. It is an elevated version of the classic Y2K pairing; the layers of floral printed mesh and cascading blue/green sequins is reminiscent of coral under the ocean's blue filter.
It is important to note that Sui does not rely on the marine colour palette of blues and greens to convey her passion for the ocean landscape though, as she also presents pastel resort wear and chunky knit cardigans with fish motifs, as well as including touches of floral print throughout. She experiments with layering prints and textures, pairing towelling jackets and skirts with floral silk shirts and mixing green gingham with pattern embroidered organza. She presents the ocean landscape less obviously here, perhaps paying homage to the mixture of different surfaces across the marine world. These pieces are more typical of an Anna Sui Spring collection, but still exciting to see.
In her choice of details for the collection,Sui appears to play into the rise of hyper-femininity. She includes frilly bonnets, peter-pan collars and bow details, as well as a flower crown in the closing look of the show. She features jewellery designed by Erickson Beamon; chunky metallic shells with glass bubbles on fine chains and strung pearls, another very girlish detail. Perhaps Sui is acknowledging the idea of ‘Mother Nature’, presenting the ocean as an alluring, feminal entity. Her choices of footwear are continuations of the looks they are paired with; the designer opts for metallic or sequined mules with conch shell heels and simple sandals for the most part.
As the models enter the stage for final line-up, Sui’s full vision becomes clear. With the thirty-four looks all on one stage, and the blue tinted footage of dancing women in the background, Sui presents an entire ecosystem. An array of colours and textures that sensationally merge with one and other despite their separation, Anna Sui gives to us her sculpture of the Great Barrier Reef. She includes a link to missionblue.org in her show programme, having presented a fabrication of undersea beauty, with the hope this will encourage its preservation.
