After finishing her second year at Parsons, Sui was hired by Erica Elias' juniors clothing label Charlie's Girls, where she learned by designing for sportswear labels and doing styling on the photography shoots of friend and former Parson's classmate Steven Meisel. Sui's work as a stylist for Meisel's shoots featured in the Italian magazine "Lei" specifically were very well received. After the closing of Charlie's Girls, Sui worked for several other sportswear designers including Bobbie Brooks and Simultanee. During this time, she began designing and making clothes out of her apartment. Sui stated that she was inspired to branch out on her own by a desire to dress rock stars and people who attended their concerts. Indeed, during this period, the majority of her personal business was focused on targeting sales to music stores. While working for the sportswear company Glenora, she brought her collection of five pieces to a New York trade show, and caught the attention of New York department stores Bloomingdale's and Macy's. A few weeks later, those clothes were featured in an advertisement in "The New York Times". The manager at Glenora, where Sui was still on the payroll, was furious when he saw the advertisement in "The Times" and fired her on the spot. Left without a job, Sui took her $300 in savings and started a business out of a little corner of the living room in her apartment. For several years Sui ran the company out of her apartment, doing odd-jobs for spare income and reinvesting every penny of earnings into her business.