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Anna Sui's Sixties Circus

Though you won’t be able to buy the Spring 2010 collection Anna Sui presented on the runway in New York on Wednesday, Sept. 15, until next year, her collection for Target is ready and poised for purchase by those with a penchant for Sui’s brand of fun, trippy sixties psychedelic chic. Once you’ve exhausted the possibilities with Target, however, rest assured that there would be similar fare in store for spring at Sui’s own boutiques.

The painted backdrop featured a circus big-top, the program notes thanked the forthcoming book “Foale and Tuffin: The Sixties, A Decade in Fashion” by Iain R. Webb, and a soundtrack by Frederic Sanchez featured The Kinks, so it came as no surprise that this collection would be a sixties romp through and through.

There were majorette-style embroidered capelets, preppy cableknit sweaters layered over flirty floral Liberty print skirts and blouses (shades of purple dominated), windowpane plaid short suits, tan plaid jackets with rounded lapels and lots of lurex. Intarsia animal sweaters were cute and destined to become a vintage hand-me-down one day. An abundance of baby doll dresses were short and to the point with a single eye-grabbing print simply trimmed with cuff of lace here or a ruffle-lined button front.

Not all of Sui’s madcap styling worked. A belted checkerboard print crepe-de-chine dress over windowpane plaid shorts with knee-highs and sneakers, worn by Jessica Stam, looked like an unfortunate ensemble dreamed up by a mallrat devoted to grunge. And the plaid vests, with their complicated lapels, often seemed too busy when paired with the Liberty print florals. But a Sui girl is a fervent devotee of a good mash-up, and once again they will find plenty to play with.

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