For spring, Anna Sui stole a page from the Gazette du Bon Ton, the collectible early twentieth-century French magazine that published illustrations of the Deco era's top fashions. Many designers have focused on the surface treatments of designer Paul Poiret and his contemporaries this season, but Sui opted to concentrate on his uncorseted, loosened-up silhouettes and lovely, painterly prints.
She sent out a stream of fluid dresses in butterfly stripes and leaf motifs, waffle plaids and every kind of floral. Silhouettes ranged from baby doll to granny, with waistlines below the bust or dropped down to the hips, and there were handkerchief hems aplenty. In case you didn't make the connection, she accessorized most looks with that flapper favorite, a long ropey necklace trimmed with a tassel. After dark, those twenties babies loved their sequins, and Sui had them in spades, studding mesh tunics, tap pants, and Naomi Campbell's tank dress finale in eye-catching geometric arrangements.
