More than 100 archival looks from metro Detroit-born fashion designer Anna Sui will go on display at Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills starting Wednesday, October 21, marking the internationally touring exhibition's first stop in the metro area where Sui grew up.
"The World of Anna Sui" runs through February 28, 2027, at the museum at 39221 Woodward Ave. Three days before the public opening, on Sunday, October 18, Sui herself will appear at an exclusive ArtMember event to deliver a talk about her work.
The exhibition features garments, textiles, accessories, cosmetics, photographs, and ephemera organized around 12 creative archetypes that recur throughout Sui's 35-year career: Americana, Androgyny, Fairytale, Grunge, Mod, Hippie/Rockstar, Nomad, Punk, Retro, Schoolgirl, Surfer, and Victorian. Visitors move through a series of thematic "islands," each representing a different facet of Sui's design universe.
Sui launched her first runway show in 1991 and became known for blending rock-and-roll attitude with romanticism and historical reference. Her Detroit ties run deep. In 2012, she designed the black-and-yellow employee uniforms for Jack White's Third Man Records.
Cranbrook frames the show as a homecoming, calling it the designer's "return to the city, a cultural hub of rock."
Dennis Nothdruft, head of exhibitions at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London, curated the show. "I hope visitors feel they have been part of Anna's world, that she has taken them on a design journey," Nothdruft said in the exhibition announcement.
Laura Mott, chief curator at Cranbrook Art Museum, adapted the exhibition for the Bloomfield Hills venue alongside Katy Kim, the Jeanne and Ralph Graham Curatorial Fellow. Mott said the show reflects Detroit's identity as a music city, with genres from punk to psychedelic rock central to Sui's design vocabulary.
The exhibition has previously toured London, New York, Fort Lauderdale, Charlotte, Shanghai, and Phoenix. Funding for the Cranbrook presentation comes from the George Francoeur Art Museum Exhibition Fund, the Clannad Foundation, and ArtMembers of Cranbrook Art Museum.
Details at cranbrookartmuseum.org.
Upcoming at Cranbrook Art Museum
- Sunday, October 18 — ArtMember preview event with Anna Sui talk
- Wednesday, October 21 — "The World of Anna Sui" opens to the public
- Through Sunday, February 28, 2027 — Exhibition on view
