During the last season of Paris Fashion Week, I also had the chance to attend and sketch during another show, the RUI Autumn/Winter 2022 presentation, held at the Palais de Tokyo as part of SPHERE, the emerging brands initiative.
The brand, founded in 2019 by designer Rui Zhou, has been under the fashion industry radar after winning the LVMH Karl Lagerfeld Prize and since then it has been investigating the duality of all things, strength and fragility, beauty and imperfection, in an almost philosophical way.
The show set was presented as a sort of a lost in space place, a fragile setting with white furniture and delicate plants, where models walked freely and slowly, almost dancing to eerie and unearthly music and sounds. The presentation celebrated daily gestures and routines, the subtle changes that have an ambiguous impact on our day-to-day life and the clothes reminded us of that as well.
Between tenderness and strength, RUI keeps exploring shapes and silhouettes, creating something fresh and new, with the innovative use of wool and cashmere, seamless knits and silk jacquard pieces with a quilted texture.