Quotes from Anna Sui

I have a big responsibility to my licenses. All my licenses draw from and take ideas from the runway.

There are always different influences each season. It could be a person, it could be a piece of furniture; it depends on what I'm obsessing about.

A piece of fabric can get me going.

The sexiest thing about a bikini is that it leaves something to the imagination, which is the best part.

At the point when I wanted to become a designer, I didn't think about, 'Oh, but I'm a woman,' just like didn't think about like, well, 'I'm Chinese' or that 'I'm in Michigan.' You know, none of those things were obstacles to me. I just had this idea that this is what I had to do.

To me, fashion is like a mirror. It's a reflection of the times. And if it doesn't reflect the times, it's not fashion. Because people aren't gonna be wearing it.

I think whenever people talk about the 'Anna Sui woman,' they're talking about someone that's probably kind of more downtown, and there's always like this ambiguity: Is she a good girl, or a bad girl?

Every collection that I work on, I always think, Is this cool enough to wear to a concert?

Nothing's faster than the Internet.

I think that fashion has become such a big business and with globalization we are on new territory at this point. We are not just designing for a country we are designing for a world now.

When I look at designer books I am sometimes puzzled why they don't share their inspiration, when it's obvious somebody had such great inspiration.

Every time that I wanted to give up, if I saw an interesting textile, print what ever, suddenly I would see a collection.

When I was starting, there were wool mills in the U.S. that could make you anything. The U.S. used to produce the most beautiful cotton denim in the world. Now all that is gone.

I think you have to be in the right place at the right time. And understand that and know when it is your time and how you react to it and how you respond to it.

When punk really started to happen, it was a reaction against the disco craze of the time.

I don't have the luxury of making clothes just to make an effect. It can't be something totally frivolous, because my distributors have to have a successful season, too.

I just love the way the '60s rock stars put themselves together, because they were like dandies and peacocks. They really lived out their fantasies - and dressed their fantasies.

I love research. When there's something that I like, I want to know everything about it. I want to know exactly what was behind it, and where it went from there.

Longing and desire goes further than instant satisfaction. That's human nature.

I never intended being a business person I wanted to be a fashion designer.

Creating a book and creating a collection involve a lot of editing.

I love going to flea markets especially when I am traveling, because I love seeing the stuff of other cultures, handicrafts and things with historical content.

I love history. I love art. I like to mix it all together, but in the end it somehow has to all make sense.

I love the fact that fashion always changes, and I hate the fact that it always changes.