Hong Kong-based designer Susanna Soo, a Parsons School of Design alumna with formative stints at Diane von Furstenberg’s New York sample rooms and Anne Valerie Hash’s Parisian atelier, launched S.Nine in 2009 - mere months before her own wedding. The label, now celebrating over fifteen years, has become a popular chapter in the mighty tome of Asian womenswear: a poetic fusion of New York polish and French couture refinement. Beloved for versatile ready-to-wear that moves seamlessly from day to night, S.Nine fuses classic foundations with romance, practicality, and an intuitive sensuality. Susanna’s garments celebrate the female form while honoring real life draped, tailored, and quietly empowering for the modern woman who values both presence and ease.
She speaks of clothes as if they were extensions of breath, something felt before named. “Even as a child I had a sensitivity to what ‘feels right’ on me,” she recalls. “I picked my own clothes very early on.” Watching her mother command airports and boardrooms in power suits revealed fashion’s alchemical power: “It was amazing how an outfit could elevate one’s energy.” By her mid-twenties, the path had clarified itself. Fashion was not chosen so much as recognised, something that aligned with her creative energy so completely that deviation felt impossible.
Everything was a challenge at the beginning. “But there was so much excitement in seeing a collection come to life and learning every little thing about the fashion business along the way.” The steepest early terrain was finding the right audience: tradeshows, persistent collaborations, the patient work of translation between private vision and public desire. Yet the memory that lingers is tactile - the bolts of sample fabric, the slow birth of silhouette in the garment district.
Her hands had already been trained in the right places. At DVF she bypassed the glossy Meatpacking showroom for the raw pulse of production: fabric and trim sourcing, pattern making, sample sewing. “That was precisely what I love about fashion: the unglamorous inner workings,” she says. “The sample fabric galore had me bedazzled and inspired. The obsessive pursuit of beauty, and a group of people with relentless grit to get there, to bring the show to life, is the most poetic thing in the fashion industry.”
Paris deepened the register. After winning the Arts of Fashion competition, her time at Anne Valerie Hash exposed her to the delicate navigation between ready-to-wear and couture. “The combination of NYC glamour and grit with female empowerment, mixed with Parisian effortless allure and couture refinement, were the elements that shaped my design journey.” Those dual influences still pulse through S.Nine: structured yet fluid, confident yet understated.
Her core philosophy remains anchored yet alive. “I believe in building on classic foundations, mixed with an authentic, intuitive touch.” The S.Nine woman embodies inner strength, kindness, justice, sensuality, and creative spirit. “Sometimes a piece starts with the touch of a new fabric; I love draping and seeing how it falls on the body. I want to showcase as much of the beauty of the female body as possible.”
Inspiration arrives on its own schedule. It might whisper through Scarlett O’Hara’s resilient fire in Gone with the Wind, or the luminous emergence in Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. “It is a vibe that keeps whispering to me in a particular moment while I am sketching, and it all happens when it decides to happen.” The original muse, however, remains closest to home. “My original muse is really my mom. I think, as with all creative pursuits, it is always based on love.” Strong, kind, just, sensual, creative - the description circles back like a perfectly draped slip dress.
That personal foundation has sustained her through the industry’s louder demands. “Fashion is a big business, and because it is so visible in our culture and so commercialised, people hold certain expectations and labels about those inside the industry,” she observes. Chasing the media’s version of success, she warns, leads to burnout and hollow victories. “If you chase what you think you want based on what the media shows, you will most likely end up disappointed, burned out, and losing more than you gain in the process.”
Instead, she draws strength from quieter sources: a steadfast support system, spiritual practice, and the art of attentive living. “My mom and my husband have always given me shelter when I needed rest,” she shares. “Bringing inspiration into life, connecting with others through my own offering, finding my own way to do this in the different seasons of my life: that is the art of living.” The deepest reward remains profoundly human. “The most rewarding part is how much I have learned about myself along the way, and how many amazing human beings I have connected with through this journey.”
Bridal work has offered some of the most intimate of those connections. “To be part of the most important ceremony in their life is such a great honour,” she says. It demands trust and openness. One Covid-era gown tested the entire studio: less than a month from first fitting to final, with the bride preparing to relocate. “That was a real test for my team and me to make sure every step was precisely executed.” The memory carries respect rather than complaint, for the precision such moments require and the trust they inspire.
Looking ahead, S.Nine’s evolution feels like an unfolding. She aims to share the brand’s creative spirit with a wider audience while preserving its essential intimacy. More travel, expanded trunk shows in cities like Tokyo and Singapore, and “more fun, meaningful collaborations and projects are always welcome.” The focus stays on inspiration and connection rather than unchecked scale. “I would like to continue bringing new inspiration and creative spirit through S.Nine, sharing it with a wider audience, and travelling more to connect with different people.”
Legacy as a grand concept does not preoccupy her. “I don’t think about legacy,” she says plainly. She hopes the clothes have delivered something more immediate and enduring: joy, beautiful memories with loved ones, a lift to the spirit. Perhaps, too, that they offer quiet permission. “It also encourages young people to find their own path in their creative pursuit, to believe in themselves and not blindly follow someone else’s idea of success.”
In an era that often mistakes volume for relevance, S.Nine moves with deliberate quiet. The garments honor the body’s native elegance rather than shouting over it. They understand that true power in dressing frequently resides in what is felt rather than announced, fabric falling just so, confidence rising in response. A woman moves through her day, or through the most pivotal day of her life, carrying both armor and ease.
Susanna Soo’s own trajectory embodies the philosophy. From childhood sensitivity to maternal example, from garment-district rigor to Parisian refinement, from personal milestone to professional devotion, each chapter has informed the next without forced symmetry. The result is a brand that feels less like a declaration and more like an extended conversation between maker and material, woman and garment, private intuition and shared experience.
She returns often to the idea of energy: clothes that elevate it, moments that honor it, a life aligned with it. In her hands, fashion becomes less an industry category than a form of attentive presence paying close attention to how fabric meets skin, how silhouette meets spirit, how a well-chosen garment can quietly recalibrate the day. The pursuit remains obsessive, the grit remains real, yet the ultimate measure stays intimate: Does it feel right? On the body, in the moment, across the seasons of a life.
That question, asked early and answered daily, continues to guide S.Nine forward one precisely draped, intuitively tuned piece at a time.
Images courtesy of Susanna Soo.
