"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."
Anna Sui said that to Hour Detroit for its September 2026 profile, describing the Detroit design world she grew up in. Since it opened to the public on Wednesday, October 21, her retrospective has filled the Upper Galleries at Cranbrook Art Museum at 39221 Woodward Avenue. The house Eliel and Loja Saarinen lived in from 1930 through 1950 is on the same campus, and the guided tour to it leaves from the museum's Peristyle.
The two keep very different calendars. The Sui exhibition runs through February 28, 2027. Saarinen House stops public tours on Sunday, November 22, and stays closed through winter. Anyone in Bloomfield Hills who wants to see the designer and one of the influences she named under the same roof has about a month to do it.
A West Bloomfield High Graduate Who Kept a List of Stores
Sui's version of metro Detroit is familiar ground for this part of Oakland County. Hour Detroit reports that the halls of West Bloomfield High School were her first catwalk. As a teenager she sewed miniskirts from weekend fabric runs, Kmart's fabric department included. She stood in line to meet Jean Shrimpton at Hudson's downtown and went to concerts with her older brother because he had a driver's license.
In the same profile she can still name the stores. Jacobson's on Michigan Avenue, J.L. Hudson's on Woodward at Christmas, Northland Center, where she bought her first Betsey Johnson dress, and Saks at Somerset Mall. She left for art school in Manhattan at 18 and never moved back, but the magazine notes that she visits often, her two brothers still live in the suburbs, and seven of her nieces and nephews attended Cranbrook schools.
Cranbrook calls the exhibition a homecoming. Laura Mott, the museum's chief curator and a co-adapter of the show, ties it to the region's sound. "Detroit is a music city, and that influence is visible throughout this exhibition," she said in the museum's announcement.
What Arrived Upstairs on Wednesday
The World of Anna Sui was curated by Dennis Nothdruft for the Fashion and Textile Museum in London. Before Bloomfield Hills, it toured to London, New York, Fort Lauderdale, Charlotte, Shanghai, and Phoenix. The Cranbrook version presents more than 100 looks from Sui's archive, arranged around twelve archetypes that recur across her career: Americana, Androgyny, Fairytale, Grunge, Mod, Hippie/Rockstar, Nomad, Punk, Retro, Schoolgirl, Surfer, and Victorian.
Two pieces are on view for the first time anywhere on the tour. One is the black-and-yellow employee uniforms Sui designed with Jack White for Third Man Records in 2012. The other is the Arcadia Blossom Babydoll Minidress Olivia Rodrigo wore for her album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. Visitors who saw the show in another city will find those two additions only here.
The exhibition page also traces Sui's references, from vintage Claire McCardell sportswear to army surplus jackets to Japanese hankies. Upstairs, the theme is a designer who studied fabric and the people who worked it. The same theme runs downhill toward the Academy buildings.
The Looms Behind the House
Loja Saarinen led Cranbrook's first Weaving Department and directed Studio Loja Saarinen, which made handwoven rugs, curtains, and fabrics with Swedish immigrant weavers from 1928 to 1942. According to the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, the studio grew from one loom to 35 and produced textiles for Cranbrook's own institutions as well as for homes, churches, businesses, and exhibitions.
Saarinen House is the restored Art Deco home and studio Eliel Saarinen designed in the late 1920s. Inside are Eliel's veneered furniture, Loja's textiles, decorative designs by their daughter Pipsan Saarinen Swanson, and early furniture by their son Eero. The tour opens with a brief history of the Cranbrook project. The walk to the house passes Eliel Saarinen's Academy of Art buildings from 1925 to 1942, seen from the outside, and the interior portion covers every restored room.
The craft lineage is still active on campus. The Cranbrook Academy of Art's Fiber program covers textile traditions, tapestry weaving, garments, and contemporary art.
The Calendar Runs in the Opposite Order
The exhibition opened four months before it closes, so it can wait. Saarinen House has a hard stop. Counting from Thursday, October 22, twenty public Saarinen House tours remain in the 2026 season. Each starts at 3:00 p.m. and ends at 4:15 p.m.
| Week | Remaining Saarinen House tour days, 3:00 p.m. |
|---|---|
| October 22–25 | Thursday through Sunday |
| October 29–November 1 | Thursday through Sunday |
| November 5–8 | Thursday through Sunday |
| November 12–15 | Thursday through Sunday |
| November 19–22 | Thursday through Sunday, final tour Nov. 22 |
Tickets currently list at $20 for adults and $10 for full-time students with ID, and ArtMembers go free. A Saarinen House ticket does not include Art Museum admission. The 2026 tour listings say tickets must be bought online and cannot be purchased at the house. Advance sales for each weekend close Friday at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, and the Center notes that tours regularly sell out.
The Center's main Saarinen House page lists some practical limits. The tour runs about 75 minutes and includes several staircases. The house is not wheelchair-accessible, children younger than eight are discouraged, guests wear the shoe covers provided, and only small wallets and handheld cameras are allowed on the tour.
Cranbrook House follows a similar calendar. Its final public guided tours are Thursday, November 19, Saturday, November 21, and Sunday, November 22, at 11:00 a.m. The grounds stay open. Cranbrook Gardens' off-season hours, October 1 through March 13, are daily from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., weather permitting.
A Thursday That Covers Both
Thursdays line up best with the two schedules. The museum is open until 8:00 p.m. on Thursdays, and admission is free for individuals and family groups that day. Groups larger than 10 cannot be accommodated on Thursdays. A Thursday at Cranbrook can run like this:
- Arrive before 3:00 p.m. and park for free behind the museum, along the turning-circle drive where permitted, or in the Institute of Science ramp.
- Meet the Saarinen House tour at the museum Peristyle for the 3:00 p.m. departure.
- Return around 4:15 p.m. and go upstairs to The World of Anna Sui, which is covered by regular museum admission, with nearly four hours left before closing.
On other days, general admission currently lists at $12. Seniors and Detroit residents pay $10 and students with ID $8, and ArtMembers and children 12 and under are free. Gallery hours are 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Wednesday and Friday through Sunday. The museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Several more dates fit the same weeks:
- Guided exhibition tours of the Sui show at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, October 23, and November 6, with more on November 20, December 4 and 18, January 15, and February 5 and 19. Tickets are $22 including museum admission or $5 for ArtMembers.
- Fall Family Day, Saturday, November 7, starting at 11:00 a.m., with a fashion design workshop using repurposed textiles and miniature mannequins to style. Activities are intended for ages 5 and up.
- Bats, Bones, and Bubbles, the Cranbrook Institute of Science's Halloween-themed Discovery Days, Saturday, October 24, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
- Leonid Meteor Shower Night at the Museum at the Institute, Saturday, November 14, from 7:00 p.m. to midnight, with planetarium shows and after-hours access.
- An Anna Sui Fairytale Design family workshop, Saturday, December 5, where participants make headpieces or brooches. The cost is $15 per participant, it is aimed at children 4 to 16, and advance registration is required.
The December and later dates can wait for winter, when the exhibition is the only one of the two still open. The Saarinen House tour has to fit into the five Thursday-through-Sunday weeks that end November 22.
For many longtime Bloomfield Hills homeowners, Cranbrook's architecture is part of why they bought here. Stewarding homes with that kind of design history is the core of what Cindy and Emily Kahn do at Cindy Kahn Real Estate. If you're weighing a move, or want to know how the craftsmanship in your own home reads to today's buyers, Request Your KahnCierge Consultation.