Before Anna Sui was famous, she spent hours with her mother looking at fabric at the downtown Detroit Hudson's and picturing the dresses it could become. She described those trips in an interview with the Detroit Free Press. When relatives came to visit, her parents took the family to Cranbrook on Sundays to see an exhibition or walk the grounds. "It was just kind of a very special place for us," Sui told the paper.
Now more than 100 looks from her archive fill the Upper Galleries at Cranbrook Art Museum. The World of Anna Sui opened October 21 and runs through February 28, 2027. The show started in London, but the version on Woodward has been rebuilt around the area Sui grew up in. The museum has also spread its programs across four months, so you can see it in several shorter visits.
The Version of This Show Only Cranbrook Has
Dennis Nothdruft curated the exhibition for the Fashion and Textile Museum in London. Cranbrook's Chief Curator Laura Mott, Associate Curator of Collections Kat Goffnett and curatorial fellow Katy Kim adapted it for Bloomfield Hills. The core of the show is the same in both cities. The looks are grouped into the 12 types of character Sui comes back to again and again: Americana, Androgyny, Fairytale, Grunge, Mod, Hippie/Rockstar, Nomad, Punk, Retro, Schoolgirl, Surfer and Victorian.
The local additions are what make the Cranbrook stop different. According to the Detroit News, Sui's Detroit influences will be shown only at Cranbrook. These pieces are new to this stop:
- Her Grande Ballroom poster collection. It includes designs by Gary Grimshaw.
- A section Sui co-curated from Cranbrook's own collection. It holds the pieces that inspired her designs, including Pewabic Pottery from Detroit, work by Andy Warhol and fabrics by William Morris and Alexander Girard.
- A photo room of places from her childhood. It shows the downtown Hudson's flagship and Detroit's former Chinatown, where she and her parents liked to eat and shop.
C&G Newspapers reported two more pieces that are new to this stop. One is a new Third Man Records uniform and the other is a dress worn by Olivia Rodrigo. Jack White and Third Man Records are among the exhibition's funders, along with the George Francoeur Art Museum Exhibition Fund, Karen and Drew Bacon and the museum's ArtMembers.
Goffnett told the Detroit News that Sui's local roots fit Cranbrook's purpose. "The fact that Anna is this powerhouse fashion designer who grew up in the area feels incredibly relevant to one of the main points of our mission, which is supporting Detroit and Metro Detroit artists, designers, architects, etc.," she said.
Where West Bloomfield and the Grande Ballroom Come In
Sui was born in Detroit and grew up in Dearborn Heights and West Bloomfield. In a September 2026 profile, Hour Detroit reported that her family moved to West Bloomfield when she was in 10th grade. Her first runway was the hallway at West Bloomfield High School, where she put on fashion shows. Her two brothers raised their families in Michigan, and the Free Press reports that her nieces and nephews attended or attend Cranbrook Schools.
Sui was too young for the touring rock shows at the Grande Ballroom, so an older friend brought her the handbills. The Detroit News reports that this became the start of her poster collection. She told the paper those posters shaped the look of the whole exhibition:
"These were all hand-drawn; there were no computers back then. You can see this throughout the whole exhibition that these posters influenced me so much with backdrops, with the invitation wall, and the coloration and the fonts."
Michigan Public quoted Mott saying that punk, grunge, mod and psychedelic rock all helped shape Sui's creative vision. Sui told the station that Detroit concerts were formative and that she first wanted to design for rock fans and rock stars. That music is the link between the Grunge and Punk looks and the Grimshaw posters hanging in the same galleries.
The Calendar Is Built for More Than One Visit
With more than 100 looks, 12 themes and three local-only sections, one afternoon goes by quickly. The museum has spaced out its Anna Sui programs from November through February.
| Date | Program | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri., Nov. 6 | Exhibition tour | 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. | $22 with admission; $5 ArtMembers |
| Sat., Nov. 7 | Fall Family Day | 11 a.m.–3 p.m. | Included with admission |
| Fri., Nov. 20 | Exhibition tour | 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. | $22; $5 ArtMembers |
| Fri., Dec. 4 | Exhibition tour | 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. | $22; $5 ArtMembers |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Adult ArtMaking Workshop: Anna Sui Accessories, ages 16+ | 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. | $25 |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Family Workshop: Anna Sui Fairytale Design, ages 4–16 | 1:30–3 p.m. | $15 |
| Fri., Dec. 18 | Exhibition tour | 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. | $22; $5 ArtMembers |
| Thu., Jan. 14 | ArtLab Afterschool: Wild Fashion Accessories | 3:30–5:30 p.m. | $15 per student |
| Fri., Jan. 15 | Exhibition tour | 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. | $22; $5 ArtMembers |
| Fri., Feb. 5 and Feb. 19 | Exhibition tours | 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. | $22; $5 ArtMembers |
Fall Family Day is the easiest place to start with children. The activities are fashion design with repurposed textiles and dressing miniature mannequins. They come with museum admission, and ArtMembers and children 12 and under get in free. January brings two more fabric-reuse workshops tied to Sui's habit of repurposing fabric. Repurposed Fabric Landscapes is an adult workshop offered January 21 and 23, at $25 per participant. Textile Art is a $15 family session on January 23.
The Sui show is upstairs, but two other displays are on view in the same museum. Shaping the Field: Ceramics at Cranbrook Academy of Art and Designing Cranbrook: The Saarinens' Eclectic Vision are both ongoing. The Saarinen show, in the Lower Galleries, follows how Eliel Saarinen and his family designed the campus between 1925 and 1942, finishing with the museum's own building in 1942. That gives some background on the grounds the Sui family used to walk on Sundays.
The 1990s Show Up Across the Campus, Too
Sui held her first runway show in 1991, and Grunge is one of her 12 themes. That same decade turns up at the Cranbrook Institute of Science, next door at 39221 Woodward Avenue.
The Institute holds its Leonid Meteor Shower Night at the Museum on Saturday, November 14, from 7 p.m. to midnight. The night includes time at the Cranbrook Observatory and a full lineup in the Acheson Planetarium. The 8:30 p.m. show is "Frequency: 199X." It plays Black Hole Sun, Kryptonite and Smells Like Teen Spirit under immersive visuals, and it is recommended for grade 3 and up. The 10:30 p.m. show is Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, recommended for grade 10 and up.
The details that matter for that night:
- General admission is $19 for adults and $15 for ages 2 to 12 and seniors 65 and over. Institute members get in free.
- Each planetarium program costs $6 on top of admission. Members pay $1 at standard levels, and the shows are free for Back Stage and All Access members.
- Bring lawn chairs and blankets for watching the meteor shower outside. The event runs rain, snow or shine, and tickets are non-refundable.
The same ticket covers the Institute's traveling exhibition, Artificial Intelligence: Your Mind & The Machine. It is free with museum admission and open through May 9, 2027. The Institute's next family-friendly stretch is Discovery Days: Turkey & T. rex, November 25 to 29 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., closed on Thanksgiving Day. It offers fossils and hands-on dinosaur activities, which helps if out-of-town relatives are staying that week.
Two Holiday Deadlines Fall in November
December at Cranbrook House & Gardens, 380 Lone Pine Road, has two booking dates in November. Registration for Santa visits on December 5 and 6 opens Thursday, November 5, at noon. The events page lists family photos, a scavenger hunt, hands-on activities and Mrs. Claus. Holiday Tour & Tea runs at 1 p.m. daily from December 7 to 12. It costs $85 per person, and reservations close Monday, November 30. The decorated-house tours run the same week with morning and evening times. One example is the December 11 evening tour from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at $25 per person, reserved in advance.
The December 5 Santa visits fall on the same Saturday as the two Anna Sui workshops. A family could fill that day on campus without driving anywhere else.
Getting There Through November
The Art Museum is open Wednesday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday through Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. General admission is $12, seniors pay $10, and children 12 and under get in free. Thursday is the one evening the museum stays open late, which makes it the easiest after-work visit of the week. The Institute's posted hours are Wednesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. That page dates from 2024, so check it before you go.
If you're coming from the south, there is a detour this month. The Oakland Press reports that westbound Quarton Road is closed from Chesterfield Avenue to Cranbrook Road from October 27 through November 30. That stretch runs along the Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills and Bloomfield Township border and normally carries about 9,660 vehicles a day. Eastbound Quarton stays open. The posted detour goes north on Woodward, east on West Long Lake, south on Lahser and east on Quarton. The closure is for a joint Bloomfield Township and City of Birmingham project to build a sidewalk and safety signals along Quarton from Lahser to Woodward. Questions go to the Birmingham Engineering Department at 248-530-1850.
For trips from Birmingham to the museum, Woodward avoids the closed stretch altogether.
Meredith Colburn has worked in the Cranbrook corridor since 1993, and we've seen how its exhibitions and events set the pace of winter here. If you live near Woodward and Lone Pine and want to know where your home stands this season, we're glad to talk it through over coffee, after you've seen the show. Get a free home valuation whenever the timing suits you.
