Anna Sui: The Enchantress of Fragrance Who Dresses Us in Dreams

Every designer dreams of having a makeup and fragrance line. And that is what truly supports a brand.
— Anna Sui, speaking at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in 2019

Essential Information

Founded: 1981 (fashion label) / 1999 (launch of the fragrance line)

Founder: Anna Sui; Chinese name: 蕭志美 (Xiāo Zhìměi)

Official website: annasui.com  / Official Japanese website: annasui.co.jp

The Founder and the Origins of the Brand

An “Outsider’s” Dream, Born in Suburban Detroit

Anna Sui was born on August 4, 1955, in Dearborn Heights, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. Both her parents were Chinese Americans with unusual backgrounds: her father, Paul Sui, studied engineering at the Sorbonne, while her mother, Grace Sui, studied painting in Paris.

Yet she grew up in a predominantly white, Catholic neighborhood. In an autobiographical book, Sui wrote: “We were the only Chinese family in the neighborhood, and girls were not particularly valued in Chinese families. So my parents left me to my daydreams. That allowed me to take my dreams as far as I liked.” The sense of being different from those around her nurtured a distinctive “world” within her.

「Everything I did my whole childhood was so I could be a designer.」

(Everything I did as a child was so that I could become a designer.)
— Anna Sui

Even as a child, Sui was an avid collector. She carefully organized photographs of models, designers, and boutiques clipped from fashion magazines into a scrapbook she called her “Genius File,” which she packed in her luggage for New York. Her brother also took her to rock concerts in Detroit, where she saw Iggy Pop and MC5 perform. “When I went to concerts, I was drawn not just to the music but to the visual world: the graphics, posters, clothes, and spaces,” she later recalled. Rock’s rebellious spirit and her curiosity about visual expression would eventually become the twin foundations of her design language.

One childhood “revelation” that Sui often recounts was the experience of serving as a flower girl at a wedding. Seeing the wedding party’s coordinated dresses, bags, and shoes, she recalled: “That was my aha moment. I went back to Detroit and announced to my parents that I would move to New York and become a fashion designer.”

An Encounter at Parsons: Steven Meisel and New York Nights

Immediately after graduating from high school, Sui headed to New York and enrolled at Parsons School of Design, where she had long hoped to study. There she met Steven Meisel, who would later become an internationally renowned fashion photographer.

“He was the most beautiful man I had ever seen, and he had such a cool sense of style.”
— Anna Sui, on meeting Meisel

The two bonded over shared interests in fashion, music, and subculture, becoming lifelong friends. Night after night, they went to the Mudd Club and CBGB to see Patti Smith and Blondie perform. “The first time I went to CBGB, I saw Patti Smith, and then we moved to somewhere that looked like a high school gym, and there was Blondie,” Sui recalled.

While studying at Parsons, she worked as a design assistant for a label called Charlie’s Girls, learning the practical side of the industry in New York’s Garment District, a major center of clothing production.

Starting with $300: A Brand Born from Being Fired

After graduating, Sui worked as a designer for several sportswear companies while continuing to create her own collections in her spare time. One day, while she was working at Glenora, buyers from Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s purchased her designs, which appeared in a full-page advertisement in The New York Times. Her employer, however, immediately fired her on the grounds of a “conflict of interest.”

Her final paycheck reportedly left her with just $300. Using that money to make her first collection, Sui launched her own brand from the living room of her Chelsea apartment in 1981.

You have to focus on your dream, even when it goes beyond what seems reasonable. How could this young girl from suburban Detroit possibly make it in New York? It was always a dream.
— Anna Sui

Throughout the 1980s, Sui quietly presented her collections and continued selling them to department stores in the shadow of more famous designers. Her name, however, had yet to reach beyond the industry.

1991: A Historic Runway Show

The turning point came in 1991. Her friends Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista strongly encouraged her, telling her, “You should try it.” Although the models were paid in clothing rather than cash, Campbell, Evangelista, and Christy Turlington all walked the runway, and her first show, held in the Meatpacking District, attracted considerable attention. Sui herself has described it as “one of the biggest breakthroughs of my career.”

The following year, in 1992, she opened her first boutique at 113 Greene Street in SoHo. Purple walls, red floors, and black-lacquered Rococo furniture gave physical form to the aesthetic she had cultivated since decorating her bedroom in high school. The impetus to open the store reportedly came from her friend Zack Carr, who told her, “If you have a place to show your world, people will understand you.”

Expressing my aesthetic outwardly made it clearer. Everything became more iconic.
— Anna Sui

In 1993, she received the Perry Ellis Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). A story from just before the ceremony is particularly characteristic of her: Barbra Streisand and Donna Karan chased her down a hallway, asking, “Anna, where can we buy your clothes?”

Support from Japan and International Expansion

In the late 1990s, Japanese buyers attending New York Fashion Week became enthusiastic about Sui’s brand. She signed an exclusive distribution and licensing agreement with the department store Isetan, accelerating her international expansion on the strength of explosive popularity in Japan. “Without them [Isetan], the independent Anna Sui brand would not exist today,” Sui has said.

Although she was initially told that “nobody does that,” she signed simultaneous licensing agreements with a German perfume company and a Japanese cosmetics company, stipulating that the two undertake cross-distribution. This forward-looking global strategy laid the foundations for the brand as it exists today.

In 2009, she received the CFDA’s Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award, joining a pantheon that includes Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, and Diane von Furstenberg.

The Brand’s Commitments

Fragrance as the “Ultimate Accessory”

For Sui, fragrance is fashion’s “finishing touch,” completing a “head-to-toe” experience of style.

Perfume is the “ultimate accessory,” and for a fashion designer, it is the “completion of the fantasy.”
— Anna Sui

Her fragrance-making process also always begins with a “concept.”

I start with a concept. It has to be part of my world.
— Anna Sui

Her longtime partner in this process is Jérôme Epinette, a perfumer with the French fragrance house Robertet. Sui describes their relationship of trust in these words:

He understands. We are creating fragrance with words. You need someone who understands those words and their magic.
— Anna Sui

Rose lies at the heart of her fragrance-making. During the talk at MAD, Sui revealed that “rose has been the foundation of many of my brand’s perfumes.” Its roots, she says, lie in memories of the rose garden her mother tended at their Michigan home and the lavender-colored tea roses she repeatedly bought at New York’s Union Square Market.

She has also offered this way of judging whether a fragrance is a “hit”:

When a taxi driver tells you, “You smell nice,” you know it is a hit.
— Anna Sui

The Bottle: Another Work of Art

Anna Sui fragrance bottles are designed to make people feel that they want to keep them even after the perfume is gone.

That is one of my obsessions, and I wanted to share it with other people.
— Anna Sui

The original Anna Sui bottle (1999) was lacquered black, embodying the same world as the boutique’s interior. Later came a fairy for Secret Wish, a golden unicorn for Fantasia, and a mermaid for Fantasia Mermaid, with mythological and fairy-tale motifs blossoming in each successive series.

Sui has said that Fantasia’s unicorn-topped bottle was inspired by a shocking-pink unicorn in an advertisement for Schiaparelli gloves illustrated by Andy Warhol. Describing these historical and artistic references, she says, “Anything you love can become inspiration. That is the joy of my work.”

The latest collection, Wild Wonder (2024), pairs simple clear-glass bottles with Art Nouveau-style floral motifs and golden rose-shaped caps, creating a world that is both modern and elegant.

Anna Sui’s fragrances range from individual signatures such as Classic and Secret Wish to families that carry a bottle motif through successive variations, such as Fantasia and Sky. Sundae and Wild Wonder bring several fragrances together in a collection. Fairies, unicorns, balloons, and ice cream all have a place in this world. Launch dates and availability vary by country.

Sky: Fruit, Flowers, and Sweet Notes in a Hot-Air Balloon

Sky takes the hot-air balloon, a symbol of freedom and imagination, as its bottle design. Its airborne journey combines pear and flowers with confectionery notes. Sky Eau de Toilette launched in Japan on February 1, 2021, followed by the starry-night theme of Cosmic Sky on January 18, 2023.

Sky Eau de Toilette

Pear, bergamot, and pink peppercorn lead into lily of the valley, rose, and lotus, followed by popcorn, musk, and vanilla. Popcorn gives this fruity floral gourmand its distinctive turn. Perfumer Jean Jacques built his idea around transforming lily of the valley into popcorn, carrying the delicate flowers towards a toasted, sweet-treat impression.

Cosmic Sky Eau de Toilette

Created by Jérôme Epinette, this fruity floral takes the balloon into the night sky. The Japanese launch notes list pear and bergamot, ambrette seed, apple blossom, and carrot seed, then amber, crystal sugar, and blond woods. It shares pear and bergamot with Sky, but replaces the popcorn-and-vanilla treatment of sweetness with sugar, amber, and wood. Champagne-silver and gold details on the balloon bottle echo the starry theme.

Availability differs by region. In November 2026, Sky appeared in the Japanese and US fragrance listings. Cosmic Sky remained documented in earlier Japanese launch materials and on a Hong Kong brand product page, but was absent from the current Japanese and US lists. Its Japanese availability should not be assumed to match Sky’s.

Sundae: Four Fragrances Inspired by Ice Cream

Sundae draws on Anna Sui’s love of ice cream, with cherry-shaped spray pumps and boxes resembling ice-cream cups. Neon Twist joined Pretty Pink, Mellow Yellow, and Violet Vibe in 2025. Japanese product pages listed all four fragrances when checked in November 2026.

Sundae Pretty Pink Eau de Toilette

Jérôme Epinette’s citrus fruity Pretty Pink combines fruit with a sorbet-like character. Pink pomelo and mandarin meet fresh basil, followed by plum blossom, a Bellini accord, and blue cyclamen. Crystal musk, palisander wood, and crisp amber form the base. Its citrus-and-herb opening differs from the creamy sweetness that the ice-cream bottle might suggest.

Sundae Mellow Yellow Eau de Toilette

Sugared lemon, passion-fruit pulp, and mountain peach meet osmanthus, crabapple blossom, and jasmine sambac in this fruity watery floral. Vanilla, plum wood, and musk support the base. Perfumer Christine Hassan imagined a summer moment sharing a sundae with friends, combining citrus, peach, and passion fruit with flowers.

Sundae Violet Vibe Eau de Toilette

Jérôme Epinette’s fruity amber opens with strawberry cream, lemon zest, and cassis nectar, followed by red apple blossom, jasmine petals, and lotus blossom. Pink marshmallow and skin musk appear in the base. Where Pretty Pink emphasizes citrus and herbs and Mellow Yellow yellow fruits, Violet Vibe centers on strawberry cream and marshmallow. Despite its name, violet is not listed among the published notes.

Sundae Neon Twist Eau de Toilette

The later addition Neon Twist is a floral citrus musk. Coral hibiscus, bergamot, and grapefruit lead into guava ice cream, neroli, and jasmine, ending with musk, blond wood, and amber. Guava gives its sweet motif a tropical-fruit direction, alongside citrus and flowers. Its glossy, vivid bottle contrasts with the matte frosted glass of the first three fragrances.

Other Signatures: Sui Dreams and L’Amour Rose

Sui Dreams (2000), by Philippe Romano, layers bergamot, tangerine, nectarine, and bitter orange with peony, freesia, peach, and rose, leading into vanilla, sandalwood, cedarwood, and musk. Blue perfume fills a handbag-shaped bottle; vanilla sweetness brings the fruit and flowers together.

L’Amour Rose Saint-Tropez joins the L’Amour Rose collection as a floral fruity green fragrance. Grapefruit, redcurrant, and rhubarb give way to centifolia rose, magnolia, and white peony, followed by white moss, Ambrox, and musk. A holiday and romance in Saint-Tropez provide the setting for tart fruit and green nuances around rose.

Classic (1999): Where It All Began

The first Anna Sui fragrance, launched in 1999, is now presented as Classic. Raspberry, apricot, and bergamot lead into Bulgarian rose, jasmine, and Florentine iris, with cedarwood, sandalwood, and powdery tonka in the base. Flowers and woods surround the sweet-tart fruit, housed in an ornate black-and-purple bottle.

Its inspiration includes nostalgia for the rock ’n’ roll era. Sui’s interest in past cultures, also evident in her clothing, takes fragrant form in a rose-centered floral. Before the fairy and unicorn bottles, black ornament and flowers expressed the brand’s world.

Dolly Girl (2003): Playfulness and Girlhood

Dolly Girl (2003) is a fruity floral by Benoist Lapouza. Melon, apple, and bergamot lead into flowers including magnolia, rose, and lily of the valley, with raspberry, teakwood, amber, and musk. The bright fruit-and-flower combination evokes playing with dolls and dressing up.

The face on the pink frosted-glass bottle recalls the hat-display heads Sui collected. Designed by Marc Wittenberg, it also connects with childhood memories of borrowing a mother’s clothes and perfume to play at being grown-up. The lively fruit brings playfulness to the scent as well as the container.

Secret Wish (2005): The Founder’s Most-Loved Fragrance

Created by Michel Almairac in 2005, Secret Wish evokes a fairy tale. Lemon, tagetes, and melon lead into blackcurrant and pineapple, settling on white cedarwood, amber, and skin-like musk. Woods and soft musk surround the bright fruit.

A small fairy sits on the clear bottle. In 2019, Anna Sui spoke of her special attachment to the fragrance. She still named it as a long-standing favorite in 2024, while saying that she had since been wearing Wild Wonder’s Electric Whisper. It remains a fragrance she has returned to after trying new creations.

Fantasia (2017): Into a World of Unicorns

Fantasia

Launched in 2017, Fantasia Eau de Toilette arrived in Japan on July 1, 2018. It was created by Robertet perfumer Jérôme Epinette. The unicorn bottle drew on a carousel Anna Sui encountered as a child, while the fragrance recalled childhood dreams that remain with us as adults. Her words “It’s all about enchantment” capture that starting point.

Pink pomelo, cassis, and pink pepper lead into violet, orange flower, pastel orchid, and raspberry praline, followed by golden cypress and Himalayan cedarwood. Epinette used praline to contrast with the sparkling opening and two woods to suggest a fresh forest. The Japanese classification is woody fruity floral; Interparfums calls it floral fruity gourmand. These descriptions place different emphasis on its woods and confectionery notes.

Fantasia Mermaid

Released in 2019 and launched in Japan on May 15, Mermaid replaces the unicorn with a mermaid, taking Fantasia’s journey from forest to water. Perfumer Christian Provenzano began with “a spellbinding peony note,” while Sui named travel, exploration, adventure, freedom, and discovery as inspirations. A mermaid motif meets a spreading floral composition centered on peony.

The Japanese launch notes run from sweet mandarin, blood orange, cardamom, and pepper to jasmine, lychee, and peony, then vanilla, blond wood, honey, and tonka bean. Spiced citrus gives way to juicy fruit and flowers before the honeyed sweetness. In the US description, watery lychee supplies the aquatic fruitiness. Despite its marine setting, the composition does not foreground salt or seaweed.

Fantasia Forever

Fantasia Forever appeared in Japan on December 1, 2020, as a limited 50 ml eau de toilette. Christine Hassan created its pink-carousel fantasy, describing a dream as a fantasy without boundaries. The Japanese launch classified it as a light floral fruity scent: apple blossom, bergamot, lemon, mandarin, white peach, and kumquat; everlasting flower, freesia, dewy greens, lily of the valley, rose, and lotus; then clean amber, blond wood, and bright musk. Fruit, flowers, foliage, and waterside plants replace the original’s praline and Mermaid’s honey.

Interparfums instead lists pear, bergamot, and pink pepper at the top, with freesia, rose, and water lotus in the heart. The fuller list above is the Japanese 2020 launch description. These differing note lists alone do not establish a regional formula difference or reformulation.

Fantasia Gold Edition

A gold unicorn and bottle accompany a box depicting flowers in a garden at dusk. In its story, everything the unicorn touches turns to gold. Perfumer Gino Percontino took inspiration from the bright stars of Leo, pairing a radiant opening with layers of vanilla sweetness. It was presented in Japan as a limited 50 ml eau de toilette.

Pear blossom, bergamot, and lemon chiffon open this floral gourmand; rice pudding, honeysuckle, and blooming jasmine form the heart; patchouli, tonka bean, and creamy vanilla make up the base. Where the original combines raspberry praline and wood, Gold develops a succession of lemon cake, rice pudding, and vanilla. Its composition, not just its color, is distinct.

Fantasia Pop Surprise!

Launched as a limited edition in Japan on December 1, 2023, Pop Surprise! used a surprise box containing one bottle in one of four color combinations. The color is revealed on opening, but all four contain the same eau de toilette. Together they evoke the colors of 1970s Pop Art. Jérôme Epinette also took Andy Warhol’s colors as a starting point for bright fruit, flowers, and cotton candy.

Wild raspberry, cassis, and jabuticaba lead into jasmine sambac and blue cyclamen, followed by cotton candy, Ambroxan, and driftwood. This floral gourmand carries the original’s fruit-and-confectionery pairing from praline towards cotton candy. Berries echo the vivid bottle colors, while cotton candy maintains the fairground association.

Fantasia Rose

Fantasia Rose launched in Japan on December 1, 2024, as a limited 30 ml eau de toilette. A rose-gold unicorn and pale rose-colored liquid evoke a sunlit rose garden. Sui calls rose “a cornerstone in many of my designs.” Takasago perfumer Catherine Selig explored its changing facets, bringing a recurring motif from Sui’s clothing and ornament into Fantasia.

Ambrette, bergamot, and wild berries lead into rose, aquatic notes, and geranium, then amberwood, vetiver, and skin musk. This floral woody composition differs from Gold and Pop Surprise!’s confectionery focus: water and geranium surround rose before the scent moves into wood and musk.

Japanese Listings and Limited Editions

When checked in November 2026, the Japanese fragrance list included Fantasia and Fantasia Mermaid. Forever, Gold Edition, Pop Surprise!, and Rose had been introduced as limited editions in Japan. Hong Kong product listings for Pop Surprise! and Rose also remained available. Japanese limited releases and overseas listings should not be treated as equivalent: a surviving page, or absence from one region’s list, does not establish worldwide discontinuation.

Wild Wonder (2024): The Culmination of 25 Years

Wild Wonder: One Rose, Five Fragrances

Created by Jérôme Epinette for the fragrance line’s 25th anniversary in 2024, Wild Wonder comprises five eaux de parfum exploring rose with green tea, fruit, musk, citrus, and spices. The collection launched in Japan on June 18, 2025. It returns to the affection for rose that runs back to the first fragrance in 1999.

At its presentation at St. Theo’s in New York, the fragrances appeared alongside the Spring/Summer 2025 fashion collection, Sally Go’ Round The Roses. Rose connects clothing and perfume. Across the five scents, green tea gives the flower a fresh direction, lychee a fruity one, and amber a warmer setting.

Dew Fields

Inspired by the sound of water droplets and expanses of greenery, Dew Fields pairs rose and green tea in a fresh floral. Cassis and lemon add tart fruit to the tea opening, before peony, cyclamen, and rose oil carry its green impression into flowers.

Sandalwood and pink musk provide sweet wood and softness beneath the floral heart. Epinette describes introducing “some earthy but clean freshness” while retaining a petal-like floral character. Rather than simply amplifying rose’s sweetness, the composition balances it against tea and wood.

Electric Whisper

This fruity floral centers on rose and lychee. Bergamot, cassis, and pink pepper lead into rose, magnolia, lychee, and guava. Juicy fruit fills the space between the two flowers.

Pink sugar and Ambroxan sit alongside vetiver and patchouli in the base, setting sweetness against woody and herbal elements. Epinette began with lychee’s juicy, playful character and paired it with rose. Layering lychee and guava gives the fruit particular fullness.

Mystic Luna

The soft light of a crescent moon inspires this rose-and-white-musk fragrance. Bergamot and juniper berry combine citrus, fruit, and spice in the opening. Grasse rose and jasmine petals meet in the heart, with rose softening jasmine’s powerful floral character.

Its fragrance family is floral amber. Ambroxan and crisp amber supply a musky texture and warmth in the base; Epinette describes adding them to create a sense of intimacy. Unlike Dew Fields’ tea or Electric Whisper’s fruit, Mystic Luna rests its flowers on amber.

Thorn of a Rose

Thorn of a Rose pairs rose with citrus in a floral woody composition. Juicy mandarin and pink pepper open the scent before rose damascena and violet. Epinette used citrus to highlight the rose and give it clean, crisp freshness.

Incense and patchouli follow that bright opening, bringing suggestions of smoke, wood, earth, and herbs. Fresh mandarin and the warm smoke of incense frame the rose from either side.

Utopia Mist

Utopia Mist imagines an ideal world beyond the mist, developing rose’s spicy side as a floral spicy fragrance. Saffron, pink pepper, and yuzu form the opening. Epinette began with the spice he found within rose and developed the combination of spices and yuzu.

Raspberry flower, wild Tuscan orris, and midnight violet form the heart, while tonka bean and cashmere wood support pink sugar in the base. Although rose and spice are the theme, the published note list does not name rose separately. Flowers, spices, and sweet woods express the shared floral idea differently from the more explicitly rose-centered Thorn of a Rose.

The Changing License: Wella, P&G, and Inter Parfums

The first fragrance was launched in 1999 under an initial licensing agreement with Wella AG (or a predecessor of P&G). Procter & Gamble (P&G) subsequently held the license, but in June 2011 a ten-year exclusive worldwide licensing agreement was signed with Inter Parfums, Inc., effective January 1, 2012, with two five-year renewal options. Inter Parfums President Andy Clarke commented at the time that he had “high expectations for expanding the brand’s fragrance presence in North America, Europe, and the Middle East,” while Sui herself said she was “very excited about the opportunity for growth.”

By the Way…

• Anna Sui also speaks candidly about her personal fragrance history. She still treasures the original gift box of the Chanel No. 5 her mother wore, and she used Robert Piguet’s Fracas, relaunched in 1996. Of Kenzo King Kong, released in 1980, she said: “When I heard it was being discontinued, I bought about 30 bottles. I am sure they have gone off by now, but I still have them all in their boxes.”
• At The World of Anna Sui exhibition held at New York’s Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in 2019, the entire fourth floor was filled with the scent of Fantasia. Incorporating fragrance into the exhibition space itself was another characteristically Sui pursuit of a “complete environment.”
• In 2009, the brand’s motto, “Live Your Dreams,” also became the title of a perfume. Everything follows a consistent thread.