Rui Zhou has heard the same comment many times.
When people talk about her designs, the word sexy always comes first. Sometimes it sounds like praise. Sometimes it sounds like warning.
Too revealing. Too bold. Too much.
“I never designed clothes to make women look sexy,” Rui says. “I design them to make women feel their own bodies.”
That difference—small on the surface, fundamental underneath—has shaped her entire journey as the founder and creative director of RUIbuilt.
Where Her Aesthetic Began
Rui’s design language didn’t appear overnight. It began when she was still a student.
She studied fashion design at Tsinghua University, then continued her graduate studies at Parsons School of Design in New York. It was there that something shifted. “In North America, people are much more relaxed about their bodies,” she recalls. “They don’t treat size or shape as something to hide.”
That confidence stayed with her.
She began working with extremely soft, elastic materials—fabrics that stretch and respond to the body instead of correcting it. Pearls connect knitted structures, creating openings naturally when the fabric expands. The clothes change with movement. They only make sense once someone is inside them.
“When the clothes are on a hanger, they look very small,” Rui explains. “But when you put them on, they become you and the garment together.”
Over time, people started telling her something unexpected: I didn’t realize my body could look like this. I didn’t know beauty was already there.
That response became her compass.
Designing From Relationships
For Rui, fashion has always been about relationships—not trends.
Her graduate collection was inspired by her family, especially her mother and sister. At the time, Rui was living in New York while her family remained in China. Distance, time differences, and misunderstandings made communication difficult. Arguments happened. So did longing.
“I wanted to express a feeling that was sharp and fragile,” she says, “but also very close to the skin.”
That tension became visible in her designs: garments that appear broken or delicate, connected by pearls that look as if they might snap—but never do. They suggest vulnerability without collapsing.
During her graduation show, Rui invited her mother and sister to attend. Her opening look walked the runway. She cried.
“I didn’t care whether they fully understood the design,” she remembers. “They were there. That was enough.
Facing the Label of “Sexy”
As RUIbuilt gained attention, so did criticism.
In 2021, Rui became the first Chinese designer to reach the finals of the LVMH Prize, eventually receiving the Karl Lagerfeld Special Jury Prize. The recognition brought global visibility—and louder judgment.
Every appearance, every image, was dissected.
“At one point, the word ‘sexy’ covered everything else I wanted to say,” Rui admits. “It felt like people stopped listening.”
For a while, she resisted the label completely. But her thinking evolved.
“Sexy doesn’t have to mean exposure,” she explains. “It’s not a body type, and it’s not about pleasing someone else. For me, it’s a kind of attraction—between people, between energy, between emotions.”
In her recent work, sensuality becomes quieter. Cut-outs appear softer. Ties feel more instinctive than deliberate. The clothes don’t demand attention—they invite presence.
Love What Makes You, You
RUIbuilt’s slogan—Love what makes you, you—comes from Rui’s refusal to correct the body.
She doesn’t believe clothing should change who you are. She believes it should reveal what already exists.
“My clothes need a body to be complete,” she says. “They only exist fully when someone wears them.”
That belief has earned her both loyalty and controversy. But Rui has learned not to negotiate with misunderstanding.
“I don’t think about pleasing everyone,” she says simply. “I think about being honest.”
Where Rui Zhou and OSUGA Meet
In September 2024, OSUGA and RUI collaborated at Paris Fashion Week.
Models of different body types walked the runway wearing RUIbuilt’s signature second-skin designs, holding intimate objects without irony or provocation. The moment wasn’t about shock—it was about agency.
Both brands share the same belief: intimacy is not something to explain or justify. It belongs to the person who experiences it.
In that sense, the collaboration felt inevitable.
Rui Zhou continues to work under the gaze of the world. She does not step away from it. She stands inside it—loving what makes her, her.
