Anna Sui
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"Anna Sui" is an United States/American fashion designer. Sui is one of the most celebrated names in American fashion, known for her timeless designs and ability to transcend eras with historical and culturally inspired collections. She was named one of the "Top 5 Fashion Icons of the Decade" and in 2009 earned the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), joining the ranks of Yves Saint Laurent (designer)/Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, and Diane von Furstenberg. Her worldwide luxury fashion brand includes clothing, shoes, cosmetics, eyewear, and accessories, as well as her renowned line of signature fragrances. Anna Sui products are sold through her free-standing stores and distributors around the world in over 50 countries. In 2006, Fortune (magazine)/Fortune estimated the collective value of Sui's fashion empire at over $400 million.

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[NEW YORK (CNN) --] If you're going to live with it, you have to love it, ... Everything that comes into my apartment, I have to use.

It's a touch of fantasy that you want. It adds just a touch of color, and you feel very feminine.

You still get the sheer quality coming through but you're covered.

[The master bedroom gets drama from its large-scale Victorian furniture and sophisticated mauve color scheme.] We tried about 20 mauves until we found the right shade, ... It could get kind of Pepto-Bismoly or too purpley.

[The red library is Sui's tribute to fashion maven Diana Vreeland, who served as editor for Harper's Bazaar (1939-1962) and Vogue (1963-1961).] My most precious collection is my bound Vogue magazines, ... and they're kind of like my Bible. I look at them all the time when I'm trying to inspire myself for a collection.

The shapes are very elongated and lean. My sweaters kind of go beyond the hip. They're very, very skinny. A lot of the jackets are cardigan shapes and again, they're long and skinny.

Every season I buy a double-breasted jacket but it could be fitted, very boxy. It could be oversized. It could be forties-shaped. So I think it's my job to make it desirable and new for the customer and the customer always has to fill in that slot in their wardrobe.

[Her latest addition to the living room -- paper mache furniture, with mother-of-pearl inlay -- follows those guidelines. What attracted her to it?] I think that the fact that it's black and that it has like this color in it and there's painting around it, ... It just doesn't seem real, and then the fact that it's functional too.

The colors kind of take on a very earthy tone, but with a richness of a forest or a garden. Dark greens, redish browns, kind of golden yellows, and some oranges for accent.