Paris Fashion Week: Weaving Between Worlds ~ RUIBuilt's Dialogue of Strength and Vulnerability

One of the fluid designs at the new RUIbuilt SS25 show in Paris, 

On the first day of Paris Fashion Week for Spring/Summer 2025, designer Rui Zhou set the tone for evocative, interesting collections. With her label RUIbuilt, she continues to push the boundaries of what clothing can express. The new work was inspired by liminal spaces and the nuanced interactions between body and fabric. The designer's vision of imperfection has earned her a distinctive place in fashion, writes Antonio Visconti. Photographs by Andrea Heinsohn

The fine mesh of being entwined

together as all life is,

IN BETWEEN showers of heavy rain in Paris, people dashed to the afternoon and evening shows. The RUIbuilt collection was presented in an austere space with concrete floors and white walls. Against this stark backdrop, the collection stood out with its lilting lines and web-like knits that clung to the body. Some of the models were even woven together in a mesh of fine threads. 

At the core of Rui Zhou’s latest collection lies the idea of liminal spaces: transitional, often vacant places like deserted corridors, airports at night, and amusement parks after hours. The designer makes clear in the show notes how these spaces, stripped of their original purpose, evoke a disorienting feeling of being neither here nor there, simultaneously familiar yet unknown. 

It’s an idea that resonates with what Zhou captures in her work: the tension between perfection and imperfection, fragility and strength, softness and structure. Liminal spaces become metaphors for the blurred lines between outer and inner worlds, which the designer translates into fashion through soft, flowing fabrics, intricate cut-outs, and body-conscious silhouettes. These fluid, ethereal forms contrast with the angles and clasps that symbolize mending. No one seemed quite sure what the sculptural objects the models were holding were, but they turned out to be sex toys.

The Spring/Summer 2025 collection felt like a continuation of Zhou's exploration of the body’s relationship with clothing. Her signature use of cut-outs and G-string-like straps highlighted areas of skin, challenging traditional boundaries of what clothing should cover or reveal. The garments become an extension of the body’s movement, with flowing silk draping. 

Rui Zhou's designs capture the tension between perfection and imperfection, fragility and strength, softness and structure

One of the less revealing

ensembles in the collection

The strength in Zhou’s delicate compositions lies in this juxtaposition. Her work is filled with contradictions: sheer knitwear, punctuated by holes and anchored with pearl beads, wraps around the body like a second skin, creating a sense of both exposure and protection. 

This tension between vulnerability and resilience is deeply personal for Zhou, who has often spoken about her identity as a Chinese immigrant and the feeling of being both rooted in her cultural heritage and dislocated in new surroundings.

Rui Zhou’s background has played an integral role in shaping her design philosophy. Born in Hunan, China, she studied at the prestigious Parsons School of Design in New York, where she first started exploring the relationship between textiles and the body. 

Her experience of living between two cultures has informed her aesthetic, which sits at the intersection of East and West, merging the fluidity of traditional Chinese silk with the structured, geometric forms more commonly found in Western fashion. For Zhou, the space between these cultural references is where the most exciting creative tension exists.

Her aesthetic is at the intersection of East and West, merging the fluidity of traditional Chinese silk with the structured, geometric forms in Western fashion

Her fascination with dualities has become a hallmark of her work. This tension is perhaps most evident in her use of stretchy fabrics, which mold to the body, revealing and concealing in equal measure. Zhou's designs emphasize the natural rhythms of the human form, celebrating the uniqueness of each wearer. She wants her pieces to be physical representations of the complex, often contradictory emotions that lie beneath the surface.

The connections between people

were emphasized by the literal

ties binding the models together

As one of the fashion industry's rising designers, Zhou’s work continues to evolve. She first gained international recognition in 2021 when she won the prestigious LVMH Karl Lagerfeld Prize for Young Designers, sharing the honor with KidSuper's Colm Dillane and Lukhanyo Mdingi. 

This accolade cemented her status as a trailblazer, particularly as the first Chinese designer to make it to the final of the LVMH Prize. For Zhou, this achievement was significant not just for her career but for the visibility it brought to Asian designers in a predominantly Western industry. 

Though known for her daring, skin-baring designs, Zhou’s latest offering aims to turn poetry into something more tangible, where diaphanous silk and the cut-out designs meld with the body. The collection felt like a dialogue between the past and the future, inviting the wearer to move freely between these spaces, much like the liminal environments that inspired the designs. 

Each piece tries to tell a story, not just about fashion but about the human condition. In a world that often demands perfection, Zhou's work serves as a reminder that strength can be found in imperfection, and beauty in the spaces in between.

See more highlights from the RUIbuilt SS25 show in Paris below