On Wednesday, fashion designer Anna Sui unveiled Wild Wonder, a collection of five new scents celebrating the label’s 25 years in the fragrance business.
Each scent riffs on roses, expressed in different ways. There’s the spicy Utopia Mist, and the smoky Thorn of a Rose. Dew Fields is a wet, green rose, Mystic Luna is a rose suspended in amber, and Electric Whisper is a bouquet of fruits, and also of roses. Each was nosed by Jérôme Epinette, of the fragrance and flavour company Robertet, who is known for his contributions to Byredo and Atelier Cologne.
Fans of her fragrances will find these new bottles to be understated compared to her past feats of packaging, which have included bottle caps moulded into bucking unicorns and an inverted atomiser made to resemble a hot air balloon. While Sui’s previous fragrances have tended toward fantasy, Wild Wonder sits closer to Earth — “really more commercial,” Sui said.
“So many women I meet tell me, ‘My first fragrance was Anna Sui!’” the designer said. Sui’s fresh, floral scents and fantastic bottles have obvious youth appeal, but she hopes the new fragrances will resonate across generations — “customers that are just exploring fragrance, and customers that are older and more sophisticated as well.” The Wild Wonders are priced at $77 each, along with the rest of Sui’s scents, and will be available direct-to-consumer through the brand’s website and later through affiliates in East Asia.
An originator of the designer label fragrance license, Sui released her first fragrance, an eponymous tea rose scent, in 1999 with beauty company Wella, which was shortly after acquired by the CPG giant Procter & Gamble. In 2011, Sui took her collection to the French company Interparfums, which sold fragrances for brands like Burberry and Jimmy Choo. The portfolio has since lost Burberry but added Donna Karan, Coach and Oscar de la Renta; the company’s third quarter 2024 sales were “the highest for any quarter in our history,” according to Jean Madar, Interparfums Chairman and CEO, with sales exceeding $1 billion so far this year.
Sui’s new collection “takes elements from all the fragrance in Anna’s fragrances portfolio,” explained Walter Johnsen, vice president of product development at Interparfums and a longtime collaborator of Sui’s from the Wella days. Take Electric Whisper, which incorporates fruity black currant and bergamot, and has become a favorite of Sui’s.
The designer used to wear the Secret Wish, another fruit-floral that launched in 2005, returning to it after every subsequent launch. “Ever since we created it, I’ve been wearing it,” Sui said. “So I’m excited that I have a new fragrance to wear now, too.”
On Wednesday evening, the brand will display the fragrances at a presentation in lower Manhattan alongside Sui’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection called “Sally Go’Round the Roses,” inspired by 1960s girl groups.
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