Anna Sui was feeling romantic this season.

“What inspired me were these exhibitions I saw last year — a [Christian Bérard] one in Monaco; a Victorian ‘Color Revolution’ exhibition at the Ashmolean [Museum] in Oxford, and the [John Singer Sargent] exhibits at the Tate, which are on now at the Met,” Sui said of her artistic inspirations. “I think that nobody painted clothes better than Sargent — the lushness of the fabric and romance of it all.”

She pulled from each to create resort’s palette of black, white and custard yellow with the varying shades of the Victorian era’s purples and greens, and worked them into her seasonal assortment of pretty mini floral (lillies of the valley, sketched roses, ribbon handkerchief) and wallpaper prints. They looked great on new takes on Sui’s well-known girlish aesthetic, which expanded beyond signature prairie dresses and youthful sets into modern styles with Neo Romantic flair, as seen through modern petticoat skirts, taffeta dresses, corset and peplum tops and Victorian jacket-inspired knitwear camisole and knitwear cardigan.

“They look just like the Victorian skirts you’d see at the museum,” Sui said, pointing out a custard yellow blouse and midi skirt with lace trim as well as crinkled or Fortuny-pleated midlength skirts and sweet bed dresses. 

From beginning to end, Sui’s “Neo Romantic” resort collection encapsulated what her customers constantly desire — youthful, modern and unfussy fashions enriched with vintage nods.