- I explained to her, I wanted these mythological creatures
and she said, "Well, we do do the Dodo."
And I thought, "Okay, I've got the right place."
[playful upbeat music]
Hi Vogue, I'm Anna Sui.
Welcome to my home in Greenwich Village.
Today, I'm going to show you my objects of affection
and I've got a lot of surprises for you.
[playful upbeat music]
This is the silver living room
and it's inspired by Rose Cummings who had a room
that kind of looked like this
that had silver reflective wallpaper
that was all hand painted chinoiserie.
My first object of affection are these tiles.
They're William de Morgan.
I had seen them in books and then also
at the Victoria Albert Museum.
I realized like, "Oh I'll never have them
"because they don't make them anymore."
William de Morgan went out of business many, many years ago
but then I met the tile curator at the VNA
and he told me that there was one place that still made them
and it was Kenneth Clark Tiles.
So I called the number that they gave me
and the woman answered the phone.
I explained her, I wanted these mythological creatures
and she said, "Well, we do do the Dodo."
And I thought, "Okay, I've got the right place."
I've lived here over 20 years and I had this idea
that I would love to combine apartments
with the across the hall apartment
and we broke through here and built a secret door.
[playful upbeat music]
So this is the library.
I love coming here especially in weekend mornings
and sitting by the window and reading,
looking at magazines or mail.
It's just like one of the most relaxing rooms
in the whole house.
This picture of butterfly wings was given to me
on my first perfume tour to Taiwan.
People in the 1930s and 40s used to make these
for souvenirs and through the years I found others
that are probably from the 30s and 40s
and then my most recent acquisition
are these little tiny plates
that I found on Live Auctioneers actually.
Designing a room is very similar
to designing a collection.
In fact, I had like my mood pages that I would put together
with pictures from books and research that I did
for the color scheme for actually the whole mood
that you're trying to create per room.
It's also the way that I design clothes.
I'll have a color palette
and I'll have a mood I'm trying to create.
This is the red room.
We do a lot of reading in here.
The TV's in here and I even have my little home gym in here.
It's one of my favorite rooms in the house.
The feature in this room is this cabinet
which is filled with my original Vogues
that I collected as a kid
and then I supplemented the collection where I have volumes.
I found bound additions and then I bound all of mine.
I use this a lot for reference and just enjoyment
because I I just love looking at the pictures
of the 60s Vogues.
My collection goes from the 50s through the 70s,
the late 60s and early 70s were my own
and then I also found bound additions
in secondhand book stores and then I bound them
all together, so that's why you see
all these volumes of books.
The first time that I was featured in Vogue
is when I did my first fashion show.
It was 1991.
They talked about my fashion and had a few pictures.
I had been collecting Vogues almost all my life.
So it was really, really special.
Well, I guess I should put this back
and I've got something else to show you.
[playful upbeat music]
When I took this apartment that was my first focus
was to have a dining room that I could have guests over
and we could actually have a sit down meal.
It's really fun to have family here.
I've had up to 60 people in this room,
lots of friends, big gatherings.
Sometimes they bring extra friends
so there's lots of extra chairs sitting around
that we kind of push around the table
and we've had some feasts here.
The wallpaper is done by the same people
as in the other silver room, it's Gracie wallpaper
but it's kind of a frosted metallic
with a very, very pale off white.
The hardest to obtain object of affection
that I have is this fireplace.
So I had no idea what the story of this fireplace was
but my friend is a collector of this tinsel art
and you can see I have a few pieces that I got from him.
We found out that this tinsel art was produced
in these wrought iron fireplaces right after the Civil War.
I saw it at an antique store in Holland, Michigan years ago
and it was built into the wall and I wanted to buy it.
It was the most beautiful fireplace I've ever seen.
It looks like a piece of jewelry.
They didn't wanna sell it
and I was practically ready to cry
and when I left, the daughter followed me out
and she said, "Give me your number.
"I'll call you when my parents are ready to let it go."
Well, a couple years passed and I didn't hear from her.
So I called her and she said, "Hold on a minute."
And she asked her mom and her mom said,
"Okay, let's let her have it."
So they took it out of the wall and I got it here.
So this room was inspired by the David Hicks room
for Helena Rubinstein.
I love that he did it all pink and purple.
I never liked that color combination
until I saw those rooms.
So I fell in love with the designer James Mont
and this is one of the pieces here.
What I loved about it, what he did was it's all kind
of chinoiserie but he did very special finishes.
There's gold with silver layered on top
and it creates kind of an iridescent shimmer.
One of my favorite pieces is this chandelier.
It's again, very chinoiserie but it's kind of camp.
I like the little guys on the top
and it was the perfect color for the room.
I found it on eBay.
I think a lot of what I do is camp.
There's always like a sense of irony,
kind of a tongue in cheek sort of approach
to a lot of what I do.
Now, I wanna show you something really special.
This room was a bedroom, but I turned it into another closet
because I needed storage space.
I love this mural that Hilary Knight painted for me.
He's the illustrator from the Eloise books
and I met him several years back and he started telling me
about these murals that he was doing for people
and I thought, "Oh, I want a mural too."
So he came and saw the space and we just talked about
what did I want in the mural
and the first sketch that he sent me
had some very wicked leopards in them
that were kind of very predatory
and that didn't work for me.
I thought it would be great if I had a club,
but not in my house and then he came back
with these beautiful birds.
Hilary was 94 years old at the time
so he wasn't really able to paint against the wall.
So we bought panels and he painted each panel
and they pieced this whole thing together.
I love that Hilary not only painted these
but there's also, if you come in close
there's paralyzed parts on their jewelry
and there's glitter and there's even a little spider here
that looks like his body is like a Ruby.
When I saw the finished product,
I mean, it's just so stunning.
It's more than I dreamed about.
It's very, very special.
So from one of the most sentimental pieces,
I'm gonna show you something that's the most talked about.
[gentle music]
Well, this is the bathroom and it's one
of the most talked about rooms in the house.
I went to visit this beautiful apartment on Fifth Avenue
and she had a totally mirrored bathroom from the 1930s
but it had all this etched glass also.
We couldn't do the etching but we kind
of simulated the moldings and really built like kind
of an art deco dimension in it
and this window is one of the things that I love,
that in New York apartments, in older apartments,
there's that frosted glass that always looks so depressing.
So I've replaced all that frosted glass
with these panels that are from companies
that make stained glass.
Well, I've showed you the most popular selfie space
in the house, now I'm gonna show you something
that's really special and it's a piece of clothing.
So this is my bedroom.
The wallpaper is de Gournay
and there's lots of peacocks and birds throughout.
I fell in love with the color
and again, there's so many birds.
I think that there's kind of a playful quality
to all the elements in here but the most exciting thing
in this room is this Elizabeth Taylor kaftan.
I went to the Christie's auction
with my friend Sofia Coppola
and we were trying to get the Theo Porter kaftans
and somebody was out bidding us on the phone
but this beautiful titsiani one came up.
I think it's just really a work of art.
The cut velvet and then all the hand beating.
I wore this for New Year's right after I got it
and I've worn it on a couple special occasions.
[playful upbeat music]
Thank you, Vogue.
It's been a pleasure to show you all my objects
of affection and I hope to see you soon.
[playful upbeat music continues]