Anna Sui revives 1990s mesh camisoles with Ellen Berkenblit
Anna Sui’s lace-mesh camisoles are back with Ellen Berkenblit, and the revival taps a bigger appetite for cult-label nostalgia that reads instantly on a night out.
The sexiest thing in Anna Sui’s orbit right now is not a corset or a giant party dress. It is the lace-mesh camisole: breathable, softly structured, and shamelessly easy, the kind of top that does the work without looking like it tried. With Ellen Berkenblit back in the frame, Sui is turning a 1990s insider staple into something that feels right for a market obsessed with pieces that photograph fast, wear light, and signal taste without screaming trend.
That instinct makes sense for a designer who built her name on early-1990s energy and never fully left it behind. Sui founded her brand in 1981, then premiered her first runway show in 1991 with help from Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista, a moment that locked her into the decade’s style memory. Today, that history is not being treated like archive dust. It is the business.
The camisoles matter because they carry authorship. Sui said the lace-mesh versions were among her favorite pieces from the 1990s, and they were originally designed and handcrafted by artist Ellen Berkenblit. That is the kind of collaboration fashion people actually care about now: not just a logo swap, but a direct line back to the people who gave the clothes their strange charm in the first place. It also explains why the pieces feel less like generic Y2K nostalgia and more like a very specific downtown memory, one with texture, attitude, and a little art-school friction.
Sui has already tested the appetite for this exact category. In 2021, she released an exclusive mesh ready-to-wear capsule with Neiman Marcus after earlier mesh pieces turned into near-instant sell-out styles. That track record tells you plenty about the market. Anna Sui’s business now spans more than 50 boutiques in eight countries and sells in 300 stores across more than 30 countries, proof that this particular kind of throwback has real commercial traction, not just editor approval.
The bigger nostalgia push has been building around her 2025 book, The Nineties, released on September 16, 2025. Packed with archival runway images, sketches, and cultural references, it includes contributions from Marc Jacobs, Sofia Coppola, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington Burns, Steff Yotka, and Ileen Gallagher. Sui also said the new camisole collection drew inspiration from Marilyn Monroe imagery and Pauline Boty’s work, which gives the revival a sharper visual edge than plain retro ever could.
That is why the mesh camisole feels so current: it is not just back because the 1990s are back. It is back because Anna Sui knows how to package insider nightlife style as something people can actually wear, remember, and repeat.
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