Anna Sui at Cranbrook Is a Thursday-Night Show

Anna Sui's first runway was a high school hallway a few miles from Cranbrook. In a September profile, Hour Detroit describes the halls of West Bloomfield High School as her "first catwalk." She clipped pictures of British rockers and models out of magazines, and she sewed miniskirts on weekends from fabric she bought at Kmart, which she remembers as having "a great fabric department." In her senior year she added a feather boa to her signature look.

As of yesterday, Wednesday, October 21, more than 100 looks from her archive hang at Cranbrook Art Museum on Woodward Avenue. They stay through February 28, 2027. A show that runs four months and change, sits close to home, and stays open until 8 p.m. on free Thursdays works best as a series of short visits. The museum's calendar is set up for exactly that.

What opened on Woodward this week

The World of Anna Sui began at London's Fashion and Textile Museum, where Dennis Nothdruft, its head of exhibitions, curated it. Before Bloomfield Hills it traveled to New York, Fort Lauderdale, Charlotte, Shanghai, and Phoenix. The show is organized around twelve archetypes that keep returning in Sui's work: Americana, Androgyny, Fairytale, Grunge, Mod, Hippie/Rockstar, Nomad, Punk, Retro, Schoolgirl, Surfer, and Victorian. Along with the clothing there are textiles, accessories, cosmetics, photographs, and ephemera.

Two pieces are on view for the first time at this stop. One is the black-and-yellow employee uniforms Sui designed with Jack White for Third Man Records in 2012, a collaboration the museum cites as one of her ongoing ties to the region. The other is the Anna Sui Arcadia Blossom Babydoll Minidress that Olivia Rodrigo wore for her third studio album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. Laura Mott, Cranbrook's chief curator, adapted the exhibition for the museum. In the museum's announcement she says that "Detroit is a music city, and that influence is visible throughout this exhibition."

Mott told Hour Detroit that a fashion exhibition is unusual here: "Cranbrook doesn't usually do fashion shows, but it's exciting for us to bring someone who is such an amazing local talent."

Why Thursday is the day to plan around

The museum's visit page gives the weekly schedule:

• Monday and Tuesday: closed
• Wednesday: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Thursday: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Friday through Sunday: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

General admission is $12. Seniors 65 and over and Detroit residents pay $10, students with ID pay $8, and ArtMembers and children 12 and under get in free. The museum lists no separate ticket price for the Anna Sui show. Thursday admission is free for "individuals and family groups only," and groups larger than 10 "can not be accommodated on Thursdays." Tickets are required. You can buy them ahead through the Cranbrook ticket page or at the door, and the ticket page is also the place to check details before a group outing.

Thursday is the one day the galleries stay open three hours past 5 p.m. and also cost nothing. FIKA Café, the museum's café, keeps the same late schedule, with fall hours of 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays and earlier closings the rest of the week. So a weeknight visit can mean dinner-hour coffee, a pass through two or three of the archetype rooms, and home before 8:30. A $12 ticket would make that kind of short visit feel expensive. On a free Thursday it costs nothing.

Some of the hands-on programming follows the same weekday pattern. The Anna Sui Accessories adult workshop on December 3 and 5 includes Thursday sessions from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. It costs $25 per participant, is for ages 16 and up, and requires preregistration. The museum's fall ArtMaking series also has Block Weaving on Thursday, November 5, at the same $25 with materials included.

A run long enough to come back with a guide

With more than 100 looks arranged as a series of themed environments, one walkthrough covers only part of the show. The museum offers guided exhibition tours from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Fridays across the full run. A tour costs $22 including admission, which is $10 more than a regular ticket, or $5 for ArtMembers.

One way to see the show is a free Thursday evening to get your bearings, then a Friday tour a few weeks later to hear the story behind the rooms you lingered in. The tour schedule makes that possible right up to the last week of February.

Families get the same treatment. Anna Sui Fairytale Design on Saturday, December 5, from 1:30 to 3 p.m., is a family workshop for children ages 4 to 16. It costs $15 per participant and requires preregistration. The same series continues in the new year with Textile Art on January 23, inspired by Sui's collections, and Accordion Books on February 6.

Saturdays, when the rest of campus joins in

Thursdays fit the museum. Several Saturdays this fall fill the whole Cranbrook campus, and the Institute of Science and the house tours make it easy to pair the Sui show with something else.

Saturday, October 24. The Institute of Science runs Discovery Days: Bats, Bones, and Bubbles from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with creature encounters and a "not-so-scary" scavenger hunt. Costumes are encouraged, and the activities come with admission. Across campus, the Art Museum's Polymer Clay Magnets family workshop runs from 1:30 to 3 p.m. for $15 per participant, with preregistration required.

Saturday, November 7. The museum's Fall Family Day runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Its activities are repurposed-textile fashion design and mannequin styling, which fit a week when the main galleries are full of mannequins. Activities are included with admission, and the museum encourages RSVPs in advance. The same morning, Cranbrook House offers a tour from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., repeated Sunday the 8th. Adult admission is $20.

Saturday, November 14. This is the fullest day of the season. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., or until things sell out, the Cranbrook Academy of Art holds its annual Cup Sale and Metalsmithing Ring Sale. Cups are $35 and rings run $30 to $100 plus tax. You don't need museum admission, and payment is by card or digital wallet only. That evening the Institute of Science hosts Leonid Meteor Shower Night at the Museum from 7 p.m. to midnight. Admission is $19 for adults and $15 for children 2 to 12 and seniors, planetarium programs are $6 each, and you should bring lawn chairs or blankets for viewing outside.

Thanksgiving week. Discovery Days: Turkey & T. rex runs November 25 through 29, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with the Institute closed on Thanksgiving Day, November 26. For visiting relatives who aren't into dinosaurs, the Institute's Artificial Intelligence: Your Mind & The Machine is included with admission and has 30 hands-on interactives. It is open through May 9, 2027.

The Saarinen thread running through the show

Sui's account of her Detroit years mentions the campus by name. She told Hour Detroit that she grew up shopping at Jacobson's, J.L. Hudson's downtown, Northland Center, where she bought her first Betsey Johnson dress, and Saks at Somerset Mall. She then tied that city to the designers associated with this place:

"We had all those great designers coming out of Detroit, like Alexander Girard and the Eameses. They all worked for Knoll. The Saarinens influenced a whole generation of designers."

You can tour that influence just steps from the galleries. Saarinen House tours are listed on Sunday, November 1, from 3 to 4:15 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students with ID, and ArtMembers get in free. A Saarinen House ticket does not include Art Museum admission. Cranbrook's seasonal Saarinen House calendar lists more tours through Sunday, November 22. A November weekend can cover both, with the house in the afternoon and the Sui galleries before or after. The Sunday tour ends at 4:15, and the museum stays open until 5.

For any visit, the museum's address is 39221 Woodward Avenue. Free parking is available in designated visitor spaces behind the Art Museum and along the turning-circle drive, except where posted, with more visitor parking at the Institute of Science ramp on Institute Way. For barrier-free access to the galleries, the museum directs visitors to the front turnaround near the Orpheus Fountain or to the adjacent New Studios Building.

When she was 18, Sui left for New York to study at Parsons School of Design. The guided tour on February 19, 2027, is the last scheduled chance to see her work with a museum guide before the show closes on February 28.

Living close to a campus like Cranbrook gives you this kind of weeknight at no cost. If you're thinking about where the rest of your routine might fit in Bloomfield Hills, Trisha Mell knows these streets and is glad to talk through the area with you over coffee, maybe at FIKA on a Thursday. Let's Connect.