6A — Monday, October 12, 2015
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

EVENT REVIEW
Sui recounts her life

By CAROLINE FILIPS

Daily Arts Writer

The world of Anna Sui is ever-

evolving, 
consistently 
arresting 

and above all, unlike any other. For 
the past 34 years, the Detroit-born 
fashion designer has absorbed the 
intricacies of countless cultures 
and rendered them wearable, an 
approach best epitomized by her offi-
cial Instagram bio.

“I invite my friends around the 

world to share a peak into my mind,” 
it reads.

Last Thursday, a near-packed 

Michigan Theater caught a glimpse 
of Sui’s wordly psyche as she shared 
her story of breaking into the fashion 
industry, creating an enduring inter-
national brand and staying true to 
herself. As part of the Penny Stamps 
Speaker Series collaboration with 
The Institute for the Humanities and 
Detroit Creative Corridors Center 
(dc3), Sui spoke in a conversation for-
mat with Detroit-based fashion styl-
ist Paulina Petkoski. 

“We’re always happy when we 

can find people from the area who 
have gone on to find success,” said 
Chrisstina Hamilton, director of the 
speaker series. “She’s been so suc-
cessful internationally and across 
markets.”

Hamilton prefaced the discussion 

with a synopsis of the recent New 
York Times article by Guy Treaty, 
“When Fashion Shows Were Fun” 
— a wistful recount of the industry’s 
incipient years of playful spectacle, a 
far cry from today’s over-commer-
cialization. And yet, Treaty applauds 
Sui’s everlasting contingency on exu-
berance and lauds her as the high 
point of New York Fashion Week.

“Today, the most fun is always to 

be had at an Anna Sui show,” Hamil-
ton said. “Her collections take you on 
a journey that’s unparalleled in the 
fashion industry.”

Sui’s initial fashion fascination 

is a familiar tale — a childhood 
marked by lusting over the glossy 
pages of fashion magazines, adorn-
ing bedroom walls with captivat-
ing snippets and industry profiles. 
She recalled her formative years 

as a time of obsession for all things 
rock ‘n’ roll, television and of course, 
fashion — inspirations that continue 
to manifest into her collections.

“I think growing up in the sub-

urbs, I was just purely a product of 
pop culture,” Sui said. “As a kid you 
just think you have to find the magic 
key and I think, from that point on, I 
was really living my dream.”

Along with collaging her dream 

world, Sui diligently researched 
design schools and ultimately decid-
ed on Parsons School of Design in 
New York City, where she mingled 
with noted fashion photographer 
Steven Meisel, who remains a dear 
friend. Parsons also allowed her to 
break into the industry by way of 
eavesdropping.

“I overheard two seniors at Par-

sons talking about a job opportu-
nity when I was still a junior,” she 
recalled. “It was with my favorite 
designer Erika Elias’s line for Char-
lie’s Girls … so I took my portfolio 
over to see her and I got hired.”

Under Elias’s strict direction, Sui 

learned everything from sewing 
techniques to drape work. To this 
day, Elias’s mantra resonates — “if 
you’re talking, you’re not working.”

“She would say, ‘just inspire me, 

do what you want,’ ” Sui said. “She 
was a really tough boss, but I learned 
so much from her.”

Sui then went on to cultivate the 

decade-long foundation of her first 
collection. She took on various free-
lance jobs and spent seven years 
working on men’s collections in 
Italy, alongside bourgeoning design-
er Marc Jacobs.

 “He was just a young kid obsessed 

with fashion, the way I was obsessed 
with fashion,” she said. 

After an experiential education 

within the industry, Sui debuted her 
inaugural collection. Soon after, she 
took her first trip to Paris to observe 
Paris Fashion Week in action along-
side Meisel and a remaining slew of 
stylish companions. During their 
adventures, Sui and Meisel attend-
ed a Jean Paul Gaultier show with 
Madonna — an experience that lent 
her the confidence to keep pursuing 
her craft.

“We got to the show and she 

leaned over and said ‘Anna, I have 
a surprise for you’,” Sui said. “She 
opened up her coat and said ‘I’m 
wearing your dress!’ That was one 
of the big things that gave me confi-
dence.”

By 1992, Sui established her flag-

ship boutique in SoHo, the first of 50 
eponymous edifices. The decorum 
of red floors, purple walls, black lac-
quered furniture, paper maché dolls 
and all things art nouveau became 
longstanding Anna Sui motifs.

Though Sui’s work ethic speaks 

volumes to her success, she insists 
that a majority of her business ‘just 
happened’. Though it wasn’t always a 
straightforward path.

“Practically every penny I made 

went right back into the business,” 
she said. “As the business grows, you 
need more capital. It’s a hardship 
worrying about money all the time.”

She also refers to 2008’s finan-

cial crisis as a reality check for 
the fashion world, but believes 
it prompted an era of analyzing 
and strategy planning in the ever-
changing industry.

Perils aside, Sui believes she has 

the best job in the world. Her knack 
for translating any facet of the cur-
rent zeitgeist, whether it be modern 
phenomena or her recent travels, is 
positively uncanny. She absorbs the 
essence of everything from Victo-
rian cowboys to her recent Tahitian 
travels and stunningly refracts it.

“I think the thing I love most is 

the research, it’s kind of like my con-
tinuing education,” she said.

To those aspiring a fashion-centric 

career, Sui stressed the importance of 
travelling and the willingness to relo-
cate, two markers of her own career. 
Her idiosyncratic aesthetic has also 
helped her elevate her business.

“You can never tell if it’s for a good 

girl or a bad girl,” she said. “I think 
that’s part of the appeal.”

For those who were unable to 

attend the lecture or Sui’s tropical 
SS16 show in New York, a sample of 
her distinctive clothing is on display 
at the Detroit Historical Museum as 
part of the Booth-Wilkinson Gallery 
exhibit, Fashion D.Fined.

‘AHS’ still not boring

ALBUM REVIEW

By DREW MARON

Daily Arts Writer

Say what you will about 

“American Horror Story,” but it’s 
never been boring.

With 

“Hotel,” 
the 

horror anthol-
ogy once more 
stages an all-
out 
assault 

of every con-
ceivable 
vice, 

repression and 
dirty 
thought, 

even if the final 
product 
isn’t 

perfect.

Though the show has yet to 

achieve the poetic transcen-
dence of the grotesque that 
elevated “Hannibal” into a mas-
terpiece, it nonetheless creates a 
fascinating universe. Like all of 
“AHS,” “Hotel” is undoubtedly 
heightened, painting its world 
with distorted lenses and a dark, 
velveteen-hued palette.

“Hotel,” like its predecessors, 

relishes in the perverse. The 
look and feel of the Hotel Cortez 
— the true main character of the 
show — can best be described 
as a fetish club, operating in an 
alternate dimension and run by 
the staff of the Overlook Hotel 
from “The Shining.” If “Hanni-

bal” was about making the grue-
some seem beautiful, “Hotel” 
defiles the sacred, daring the 
viewer with sadistic glee to keep 
watching.

“AHS” is not pleasant, and 

many viewers will likely be 
turned off by the show’s utter 
lack of compassion. It’s also a 
little hard not to be distracted 
by Lady Gaga, who never really 
disappears into her character to 
the extent of someone like Denis 
O’ Hare (“True Blood”). Though 
viewers will come for Gaga, but 
it’s character actors like O’Hare 
who give the show its sense of 
identity. The “AHS” regular 
plays a cross-dressing front desk 
worker named Liz Taylor, who 
leaves as equal an impression 
silently reading a copy of “Ulyss-
es” as Gaga does in entire scenes 
of dialogue. The rest of the cast 
seems to be retreads of charac-
ters from previous seasons, but 
the amount of fun Kathy Bates 
(“Misery”), Lily Rabe (“The 
Whispers”) and Sarah Paul-
son (“12 Years a Slave”) have 
onscreen is infectious.

The majority of the story is 

beyond insanity, and it’s this 
commitment to the absurd that 
saves the show. Falchuk and 
Murphy’s style is like “Twin 
Peaks” and “Rocky Horror Pic-
ture Show” had a baby that 
was adopted by horror direc-
tors Dario Argento and James 
Wan. The whole thing’s so pulpy 
and melodramatic, yet so oth-
erworldly, you forgive it for its 
transgressions, at least for now.

The problem with “AHS” 

always ends up being its prog-
ress as the season goes on. Sea-
son one is often praised for being 
tied, even if by a thread, to the 
reality of the present. However, 
despite some of the hate thrown 
at it, season two (“Asylum”) 
remains the most memorable. 
It was this season that threw 
out the preoccupation with the 
real world and delivered some-
thing that felt more like music, 
with characters being played 
like power chords rather than 
human beings. 

Edward Sharpe live

By REGAN DETWILER

Daily Arts Writer

In my head, Edward Sharpe & 

the Magnetic Zeros aren’t just a 
band, but actually a nomadic tribe 
that 
travels 

from fantastical 
forest clearing 
to 
fantastical 

forest clearing. 
This is where 
they make their 
music 
circles, 

and I picture a 
lot of handmade 
percussion 
instruments 
floating in the 
air 
around 

them and that 
they’re 
mysti-

cally 
glowing 

orbs of light. No 
one has show-
ered in months, 
so everyone smells like a mixture of 
body, river water (that they bathe in) 
and wildflowers (that they sleep in), 
and this is exactly how it should be 
— the inevitable outcome of this life 
that can be chaotic and hectic and 
also undeniably beautiful, as long as 
we stay in it together.

In fact, they aren’t just a band; 

they’re a music collective made 
up of two core musicians, founder 
Alex Ebert and Jade Castrinos, and 
up to 12 other members. Whether 
this qualifies them as a tribe or not, 
it seems to go without saying that 
their music is basically made to be 
played live, which is why their latest 
release, Live In No Particular Order: 
2009-2014, is absolutely a dream. 
It takes songs from all three of the 
band’s albums, played from 2009, 
when their first album came out, 
to 2014, after their third and most 
recent album came out.

My first particularly memorable 

encounter with Edward Sharpe and 
the Magnetic Zeros was in 2010; I’d 
just started freshman year of high 
school and the group’s debut album 
Up From Below, featuring the uni-

versally beloved “Home,” had come 
out a year earlier. Knowing this 
song had gained the confidence of a 
junior I idolized — she was alterna-
tive, cool, but unbelievably open, and 
seemed to always be in touch with 
the real magic of life: love and com-
munity. She seemed to emanate the 
Ed Sharpe mindset, taking a gap year 
between high school and college to 
live in a sustainable farm community.

I found it no surprise that her 

Spotify profile showed her listen-
ing to Live in No Particular Order at 
the same time I was, the day it was 
released.

The album opens with “Better 

Days,” a track from their most recent 
album, unexpectedly titled Edward 
Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. This 
song is a nod to hope and should 
be everyone’s go-to on a bad day. It 
speaks of how we all go through bad 
times, but what the hell: “down with 
history, up with your head,” because 
“we might still know sorrow, but we 
got better days.” For me those words 
mean we got better days in the sense 
that we got days actually better than 
the ones we’re living now, but also 
that we got this song, “Better Days.” 
In this sense, even if the future 
doesn’t look up right away we have 
this song, music itself and the ability 
to feel with others.

Up next is the only record-

ing from 2009, an NPR Tiny Desk 
recording of “40 Day Dream,” which 
is the first track on their first album 
— a little celebration of beginnings 
and a drop of honey for longtime 
fans who can appreciate the context. 

Then there’s the famed “Home,” 

which has over 100 million plays on 
Spotify and which the group man-
ages to perform four years after its 
release with just as much zealous 
love and enthusiasm as if they were 
singing it live for the first time. They 
do this despite the fact that the rela-
tionship between Jade and Alex 
eventually ended; now, instead of 
being romantic partners, the two 
are simply great friends and artistic 
partners. This time, during the part 
of the song where Jade and Alex usu-

ally tell the story of Jade falling out 
of Alex’s window and he was falling 
“deep, deeply in love,” the pair had 
members of the audience come up 
to the stage and tell their own sto-
ries of being home whenever they’re 
with one another, whether the love 
is romantic, platonic or familial.

The last actual song on the live 

album is “All Wash Out,” which 
is the closing song of their 2012 
album Here. It’s a solid minute-and-
a-half longer, the time filled with 
added harmonies and hums from 
both Jade and other members of 
the band, and also with a final clap 
session from the crowd to go along 
with the gentle beat of the song. 
Dreamy instrumentals are made up 
of gentle strums on both the acoustic 
and electric guitar, trumpet, piano 
and a variety of drums, snaps and 
whistles. The added vocals and the 
already multilayered instrumentals 
(all played live) contribute to the 
communal feel of the song and the 
entire album thus far.

Though much of the group’s work 

focuses on maintaining hope and 
lightheartedness through the chaos of 
life, a lot of onerous and intense emo-
tion has obviously gone into creating 
all of this music, showing that the 
musicians may not only be remind-
ing listeners to stay uplifted, but 
reminding themselves as well. It 
only seems appropriate that this last 
song tells us to “let it all wash out ... in 
the rain.” It’s as if the musicians are 
telling themselves to let themselves 
be cleansed of the emotion in all of 
those live performances, but also 
telling their audience to do the same.

This sense of togetherness is 

perfectly encapsulated in the last 
track, which isn’t a song but simply 
a recording of a collection of noises, 
voices, accidental strums and nudg-
es on the drums that were filling 
the air, presumably before or after 
a show. It’s called “All Together – 
Live,” and is the only track without 
a time or place in its title. Instead it’s 
simply about being together at a live 
performance: the band, the audi-
ence, all together.

A+

Live in No 
Particular 
Order: 
2009-
2014

Edward 
Sharpe & the 
Magnetic 

Zeros

Community 

Music Group

B

AHS: Hotel

Season 5 
Premiere

Wednesdays 

at 10 p.m.

FX

FILM REVIEW
‘Malala’ nothing new

By MADELEINE GAUDIN

For The Daily

“This is Malala Yousafzai, 

she is the naughtiest girl in the 
world.”

The teenage 

activist’s 
brother 
says 

this to tease 
her, 
but 
for 

some in her 
home country 
of 
Pakistan, 

the sentiment 
holds 
true 

— 
she 
was 

“naughty” 
enough to be 
targeted by the Taliban. Malala 
became a household name in 2012 
when she was shot on her way to 
school, following a decision by 
Taliban leaders outlawing the 
education of girls. Since then, she 
has become a leading advocate 
for human rights and equal 
education for women. In 2014, she 
became the youngest recipient of 
the Nobel Peace Prize. Through 
numerous television appearances, 
speeches, and her autobiography 
“I Am Malala,” the generalities 
of her story have become well 
known in the Western world. 

Davis 
Guggenheim’s 
(“An 

Inconvenient 
Truth”) 
latest 

documentary, “He Named Me 
Malala,” tries to break past the 
public image of “Malala” to 
the teenage girl underneath. 
However, the film comes across 
as an hour and a half episode 
of “60 Minutes,” scratching a 
surface that has already been 
scratched. Malala is powerful, 
and the work she is doing for girls 
around the world is inspiring, 
that seems to be all we get from 
the film. 

Malala’s relationship with her 

father is central to the film and 
provides the possibility for some 
more depth and provocation. 
The film’s title alludes to the 
formative 
role 
her 
father, 

Ziauddin Yousafzai, plays in her 
activism. In Pakistan, Yousafzai 
was a school owner and education 
activist, who, as we learn in the 

opening animated scene, named 
his daughter after a woman who 
used her voice to inspire her 
country to fight for what they 
thought was right. He was a vocal 
activist for education equality 
in Pakistan, making it on the 
Taliban’s list before his daughter. 
The question looming over their 
relationship is: How much did 
her father influence, or even push, 
her into this type of activism? It’s 
a question hinted at and skirted 
around 
throughout 
the 
film. 

The pursuit of its answer would 
provide “He Named Me Malala” 
with the depth it so desperately 
needs. 

What Guggenheim does capture 

is the stark contrast between 
Malala’s age and her role in the 
world. In one scene, she is shown 
laughing at clips from “Despicable 
Me” on YouTube, but is interrupted 
by a phone interview in which she 
is asked about death threats from 
the Taliban. Minions and murder 
aren’t supposed to exist in the 

same world, but for Malala they 
do. What is the toll of her type of 
activism? We know Malala suffers 
physically for her beliefs, but is 
she suffering emotionally as well? 
The film hints at these questions, 
but unfortunately decides not to 
answer.

Guggenheim isn’t one to shy 

away from controversy in his 
films. His 2010 film “Waiting 
for Superman” criticized the 
American Public School system 
by 
asking 
tough 
questions 

and 
seeking 
answers. 
“An 

Inconvenient 
Truth” 
sought 

to find the, well, inconvenient 
truth about global warming and 
greenhouse gases. Both films 
prompted debate and discussion 
in a way “He Named Me Malala” 
does not. Perhaps that is because 
Guggenheim’s 
latest 
film 
is 

targeted at a different, younger 
audience. He seems to spend a 
good amount of time telling the 
audience, “Hey, look, Malala is 
just like you!” She fights with 
her brothers, she teaches her dad 
how to tweet and she even fails 
the occasional biology test. In 
that way, “He Named Me Malala” 
works as a YA documentary, 
aimed at an audience too young 
to already know her story.

“He 
Named 
Me 
Malala” 

provides a wonderful role model 
for young audiences, but doesn’t 
give many answers for viewers in 
search of the human behind the 
media phenomenon.

FOX SEARCHLIGHT

We can’t say anything mean! Malala is too good!

“Malala 

Yousafzai is the 
naughtiest girl 
in the world.”

TV REVIEW

B

He Named 
Me Malala

Fox Search-

light

Michigan Theater