Anna Sui FW25 / Fall Winter 2025 – 2026 at New York Fashion Week
New York, NY – On Saturday, February 8th, Designer and Founder, Anna Sui, the brand’s Fall Winter 2025 Collection, “Madcap Heiress,” at the National Arts Club in New York City featuring 28 looks.
She raises a slim cigarette to her lips, barely inhaling, flirting with the illusion of it all. Aimlessly she gazes out the window, the people milling about below are small and indiscernible, fueled by need instead of desire. Pitying their reality, she counts no blessings, no, she was chosen. Augmenting her god complex with the smoke she makes dance and past lives of mink furs, she writes the poetry of each moment with tears that stain, dictating beauty as if were love. They say you can’t buy happiness but what do they know about freedom?
For Anna Sui Fall Winter 2025 – 2026 / FW25 collection, Sui immerses herself in the world of the madcap heiress; women who would come to inherit fortunes beyond belief, only to spend it on jewelry or men by their life’s end. Citing the likes of Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress, or Peggy Guggenheim, amongst others, Sui was drawn to their penchants for the luxurious alongside their lack of Inhibition. Their unfettered tastes and reckless abandon, allowed them to live lives that were purely driven by fabulosity, transcending the mundane to seemingly inhabit alternate realities altogether. In doing so, they defied expectations to be demure, to conserve, creating the pretense for a modern day fairy table. Alongside the real madcap heiresses looked to, Sui also referenced films like Bringing Up Baby, My Man Godfrey, amongst others, hinting at the fact life does indeed imitate art. Sui recognizes society’s collective yearning and need for an escape, extrapolating that these desires reflect a greater need for self-expression and inspired prerogatives, jovially answering this call with a will to dream.
Given Sui’s enduring reverence for and reference of all things fantasy, these madcap heiresses allowed her to weave together rich textures, fabrics, and faux furs into a collection with three distinct color stories: teals and greens, magentas and russet browns, and purples and black. Fabrics range from tweed-y plaids, heavy hammered satin, faux fur trims in Mongolian and leopard, lacy rayons, tye-dyed crushed velvets and more. Jewelry and accessories were also a focal point of reference given that heiresses like Hutton had a soft spot for jade and Guggenheim was known for her outlandish glasses. Sui worked with jewelry designer, Erickson Beamon to make the pieces look as real as possible, straddling glamour and irony alike as Sui’s madcap heiresses cheekily lollygag through their castles in the sky. For footwear, Sui worked with longtime collaborator, John Fleuvog, to create custom sneakers featuring a rubber sole in three colorways to mirror the respective color palettes, along with a knee-high leopard print boot, and three high-heel silhouettes including double strap ankle pumps, a patent Mary Jane and a buckle shoe with a rubber heel lift. Sui also worked with eyewear brand partner Mondottica on two, signature frames – that each come in four colorways – one featuring protruding rays stemming from a cat-eye silhouette, and the other is cast in the shape of butterfly wings, its front features laminated and beveled details and strass decoration.
Wealth, in the world of Anna Sui, is ultimately subjective. Sui knows this herself given her enduring love for vintage, long-preceding fashion’s current obsession with it. In turn, for FW25 she also brings back fabrics from her own collection’s past (a rarity today), referencing her own archive, re-living the romance while showcasing the vastness of her world.
VIPs IN ATTENDANCE of Anna Sui FW25 / Fall Winter 2025 – 2026 : Sofia Coppola, Debbie Harry, Chase Sui Wonders, Jeannie Sui Wonders, Zac Posen, Steven Kolb, Andrew Bolton, Michele Hicks, Rachel Feinstein, Ruk Richards, Tom Cashin, Claire Sullivan, Kilo Kish, Lauren Fern, Princess Nokia, Blondshell, Tanya Ravichandran, Clara Perlmutter, Lucy Rae McFadin, Soap Collins, Alex Wolff, Rozzi Crane, Cosima Mars
ABOUT ANNA SUI, ANNA SUI premiered her first runway show in 1991, and since then has grown from ready-to-wear to include accessories, cosmetics, and fragrances. As an independent, female-run brand, she has cemented herself as one of the most beloved and accomplished fashion designers.
Born in Detroit, the career of Anna Sui is a classic American success story. Sui has received numerous awards, including the CFDA Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent (1992) & the CFDA Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award (2009). She has published two books, ANNA SUI by Andrew Bolton (2010) and THE WORLD OF ANNA SUI by Tim Blanks (2017) and opened “The World of Anna Sui” museum exhibition in London which has traveled to Tokyo, New York, Shanghai, Ft. Lauderdale, Charlotte and More. A passionate advocate for New York’s Garment District, Sui has located her business and produced fashion lines in New York City for the past forty years. Annasui.com | @annasui
Anna Sui Fall Winter 2025 – 2026 / FW25 at New York Fashion Week
All images Anna Sui Fall Winter 2025 – 2026 / FW25 at New York Fashion Week by the brand / Spotlight
SHOW CREDITS Models: Anna Robinson, Ava Shipp, Ali Dansky, Cristina Piccone, Freya Nutter, Ana Elisa, Sascha Rajasalu, Gracie Rae, Heather Diamond, Jordan Daniels, Huijia Chen, Tess Breedan, Addison Soens, Peris Adolwi, Sasha Winter, Yue Gu, Mahi Kabra, Huijia Chen / Hair: Garren for R+CO Bleu / Make-Up: Dame Pat McGrath / Anna Sui Cosmetics: Albion / Anna Sui Fragrance: Inter Parfums / Shoes: John Fleuvog / Eyewear: Mondottica for Anna Sui / Jewelry: Erickson Beamon / Program Artwork: Michael Economy / Photography: Raoul Gatchalian, Gerardo Somoza, Huy Luong / Video: Thomas Concordia / Production: Katherine Ensslen & LDJ Productions / Press: Gia Kuan Consulting