This season's show was a passport to the American Arts and Crafts movement of the late nineteenth century, bleeding into the Art Nouveau that has been Sui's default position for years. I'd never heard of the furniture designer Charles Rohlfs, but Sui could produce a weighty coffee-table book devoted to his work. As it was, she designed an embroidery based on a Rohlfs' chest of drawers, which Agyness Deyn wore in the show.
But if the mood of these clothes was vintage bordering on antique, the overall impression was curiously un-retro. That's because Sui, who once worked as Steven Meisel's stylist, knows how to weigh the whimsy: a flat boot, a big cable-knit cardie, or a fur bolero helped to make her most hippie-princess looks real-world-ready. And, because the backroom boys and girls don't always get their due, it's past time to credit Pat McGrath's makeup, Garren's hair, and Frederic Sanchez's music. At some point in the future, those elements will all be part of the most wonderful museum exhibition on New York's most underrated designer.
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