Below, Sui talks about how Barbie helped shape her world.
Vogue: Tell us about your relationship with Barbie.
Anna Sui: I am a total Barbie nerd. When I was a kid, I started a Barbie club with my neighbor. She went to Catholic school, so the only time we got to see each other was on the weekends when we’d play Barbie and build these Barbie villages and we use our little cases as part of the walls. [When we got the Barbie Dream House] for Christmas or birthdays we would build these little villages and have the car parked outside and then add the furniture. It was always an ongoing project. And then we found another neighbor on the next block that joined us, so it was an obsession for years.
Regarding your very own Barbie, did Mattel approach you?
They did, and it was quite an honor being singled out. She has my bangs, my hair, my eyeliner, my red lipstick. She has my green nails. She has my rings—one on each hand. The dress and the boots are from the spring 2007 collection and she’s wearing my jet earrings. They totally got the details of the boots and the jewelry. I mean, you couldn’t ask for more.
You said: “I know my younger self would be incredibly proud of how far I’ve come, and I hope my doll inspires fans to embrace curiosity, nurture their creativity, and dream without limits.” What role have dreams played in your career?
The thing about Barbie is that it was very aspirational. The fact that she had careers meant that you could dream about being an airline stewardess, or a homemaker, or a nurse, or having a sports car, or all of those things. The fact that you had all these possibilities was just so important at [a young] age. It wasn’t so much that [you] had to look like the doll; it was very, very aspirational. She was a fashion model, or she was a singer, or she had a gold lamé ballgown. All those things were just so dream-creating at that point.
Barbie’s kind of contrary; she’s sometimes been singled out as an impossible standard of beauty, but at the same time, she was embodying different things that a woman could be, so she was more than just a perfect blonde.
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