New Designer Collection Comes To Target

By Margarita Nahapetyan

New York-based designer Anna Sui is going to present a new fall collection for Target. The line is inspired by the CW television hit show Gossip Girl. Target has announced last week that the Queen of Vintage-Inspired Fashion, Anna Sui, becomes the second designer to be part of Target's Designer Collaboration series, following Alexander McQueen. Sui reportedly plans to create the line because she is regularly asked about the TV hit by fans of her clothes. Her exclusive collections will bring top design at unbeatable prices to women everywhere, but for a limited time only.

The designer's items will be available in 250 select Target stores from September 13 and through October 17, 2009. Target's first collaborative experience with British master of art Alexander McQueen sold out in a matter of hours earlier this spring. There is no doubt that Anna Sui's collection will have the same destiny, considering that she has added "spicy" element in her collection - inspiration from the four main characters of the teen show Sui has worked with. To be more specific, Anna Sui will be presenting the looks that have been sported by Serena and her friends.

The designer said in one of the interviews that while being in one of the Asian countries last year, she has been constantly asked by young girls about the specific locations in New York City where the main characters from the Gossip Girl show live. "I have always been a fan of designer partnerships with mass retailers. I think this is a great way to offer fashion to everyone," she said.

According to New York magazine, Target decided to launch Anna Sui's collection in order to attract more customers to shop at Target. The company has big expectations and hopes that the television hit show will turn out to be its golden ticket to success. And the designer herself has none of that going-mainstream feeling of being sold cheap. "It is an exciting challenge to try and interpret my aesthetic into a mass-produced product with a specific international source as the focus," she said.

Anna Sui added that it was a great excitement for her to create ideas and design a collection that would reflect the style of each individual character from the show, their sensibility and unique approach to fashion. "By combining the elements of art, city, spirit, punk and glamor, we created a collection that exudes New York City fashion," she said.

And, of course, there is another positive moment, that the Gossip Girl cast appears to be a big fan of the designer's. Taylor Momsen and Jessica Szohr sat in the front row and center at Anna Sui's last runway show past February during New York Fashion Week. Jessica Szohr said that she is a big fan of Anna Sui which happened through working together on the show. "Every time I would be in a fitting room and trying something on, they would tell me [it was] her. I like her," she said.