RUI FW24 at Paris Fashion Week

RUI FW24 / Fall Winter 2024 at Paris Fashion Week with entitled Key to the unknown

February 29th, 2024 – Discrete individuals in modern life always cling to a space exclusive to themselves. Curiosity drives us to connect with the outside world, and the anticipation of the unknown makes the poetry and mystery of everyday life. The moment we unlock a door or a window, experiences and feeling acquired from the course of others’ lives collide, and are then archived in the world for the self, waiting for the moment of next time interaction, when they will be exposed again. Such interaction with this carefully crafted or unadorned space is often more real and palpable, than a witty conversation or silent self-reflection. It has power in preserving a world more resistant to the changes of time, relationships and emotions.

Rui embeds thoughts on the transmission and preservation of information in the RUI Fall Winter 2024 collection, exploring the path of honest expression found in the unknown space belonging to the other. The pointy tentacles from Spring/Summer 2024 collection, become the irregular two-dimensional shaped attached to the skin and creating a visualized fissure, constituting a metaphor for torn relationships.

Details RUI FW24, The tugging and pulling of the elastic fabric on the limbs, chest, abdomen, spine and throat, in contrast to the warm wool surrounding it, seems to be an ingenious balance carefully maintained in the midst of a precarious situation. The interlocking laddering surrounding the whole body, while showing resistance, is in fact not as impenetrable as it seems; The textile fragments make an openwork bodysuit, leaving fragility all over the body, yet still leaving the key areas well-protected.

Printed denim, hooded tight tops, and loose sweatshirts leave plenty of clues underneath the appearance of anonymity. Mundane looks and soft texture make the clothing an integral part of the individual and an exit way directing the outside world, collecting different responses and expectations from others’ exploration.

As an extra footnote for the splendour of spring, Rui teams up with Adidas, using dance as a channel to amplify the interdependence of clothing and people through lightweight textiles and muted colors. Within the flow between strength and delicacy, dynamism and stillness, one gets to feel most like their true self.

This game of self-revelation and outreaching takes place in an old vacant Paris townhouse after rain. Fabrics stretched out randomly in front of windows, on the mantelpiece, on the floor, and in the corners of the room are like cobwebs from an old house, and make a mark of imperfection that implies a fascinating story. When the crowds stepps into the dense vapor of the afternoon, they also awaken the collection of old objects stored deep in memories.

In this bright, clear space revisited, people cast their inquiring eyes towards each other, towards their own projections in the mirror, and the lush garden outside the window that has been repeatedly dying out and sprouting with seasons passing by. They also cast their eyes towards the past feelings buried in the river of time.

Time is another dimension that depicting landscapes of the unknown. The flow of time is already enough to revolutionize or dissolve life’s meaning. The power of time and one’s experience determines the vision that the key may unlock, where the accumulation of objects may be infinite, or it may always follow one same trajectory.

Old fragments do not fade with time. They provide the most reliable evidence for the present by being reclaimed, rewritten, or broken. Every scene, every object to which the key of the unknown points deserves a chance – “a chance to break inside your head and be smashed to smithereens”.