Anna Sui eyes the '80s for spring/summer 2001

GALLERY Click to see Sui's collection    VIDEO CNN's Elsa Klensch interviews Sui and shows her spring/summer line Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   Anna Sui eyes the '80s for spring/summer 2001 Spring 2001: Kors goes casual, de la Renta dolls up Betsey Johnson throws fashion week a curve Lauren embraces patterns, abandons color for spring/summer 2001 Jacobs' 2001 spring/summer collection Men's and women's fashions on display at New York's '7th on Sixth' Celebrities fall for spring lines by Cole, Herrera, Dennis Designers roll out spring collections in New York     SPRING/ SUMMER 2001 Collections: Marc Jacobs Ralph Lauren Betsey Johnson Anna Sui Giorgio Armani

From Elsa Klensch
CNN Style Correspondent

NEW YORK (CNN) -- As Anna Sui sees it, there's nothing particularly new in the fashion world.

"I think that fashion has always been an interpretation of things past, but always done in a new way," the designer said. "There are always different twists and different takes on what people were nostalgic about."

Sui's latest take was on display Wednesday at the unveiling of her spring/summer 2001 collection, which harks back to the 1980s and beyond.

She has borrowed a lot of the '80s touches in the collection, such as short skirts, square shoulders and crisper fabrics, Sui said.

"But then I mixed in touches of the '40s, too, because I think the '80s were kind of like an exaggerated version of the '40s," she said.

Her fabrics include twills, poplins and denim -- a dark indigo denim that she described as crisper than the more laundered looks she has used previously. Sui has a deft hand with accessories, and never says no to jewelry, which she believes is the fastest way to change an outfit from day to evening.

Shoes? She likes them both ways -- high-heeled and flat.

She likes different lengths, too.

"I'm playing with the lengths," she said. "A lot of it is below the knee; still, there's a few pieces that I think that are going shorter. I think some of the crisper fabrics demand that the skirts be shorter."

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Anna Sui

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