RUi Spring/Summer 2024: Absent

With the space of it infinitely enlarged, otherness, as the heterogeneous nature, takes a step-by-step retreat, yet somehow still pops up occasionally in the unnoticed cracks in between. They form an ambiguous symbiotic relation, feeding off of each other as two thriving opponents in a game of parity. In the power dynamics full of uncertainty, they become absent to each other.

RUi Spring 2024 collection visualizes both closeness and aggression towards the outside world. Sharp "horns" grown from the internal are tautly wrapped around the body by thin binding tape. They eagerly cling to the skin and enthusiastically floats inside, while thorn-like bumps spread out of the silhouette, unfolding to depict boundaries of the human. The pointy ornaments make a visual illusion that their softness can only be found when looking close enough, as if sending a friendly signal…… At the same time, the symmetrical prints of morphing insect markings are accompanied by crinkle satin resembling the mimicry of snake skin, which, along with the deliberately laniated cuts and fine laddering knit texture, proclaims difference between species.

“Thorns”, serving as a metaphorical symbol of both nature’s resistance and human being’s curious reaching out -- as our intervention in nature goes deeper, we are at the same time being contemplated by nature.

For Spring 2024, Rui picks up a more contemporary approach to deconstruct the imagination of advancement and retreat, creating an artificial relic in a glass sunroom in the heart of Paris: drapes from the roof loosely conceal sand-covered old furniture scattered around. It is the ones who walk through that bring the scene back to the present, and make the floating dust particles flow again. The unknown red-eye intruder lurks in the moving crowd, imitating, exploring, curiously observing clocks and ornaments, starring with the others in this existential one-act play at the static life scene. In this temporary theater, the audience provides an extra dimension of perspective and experience. There are ghostly anonymity, crushing forces and sanguine tenderness that cast a shadow against each other, leaving space for more unknowns in the intertwined struggle.

In a glass sunroom hidden in the heart of Paris, the unknown red-eye intruder lurks in the moving crowd, imitating, exploring, starring with them in an existential one-act play in the static life scene, while the audience creates an extra dimension of perspective and experience in this temporary theater.

A philosophical coexistence of duality and unity runs through RUi 2024 Spring. It metaphorically refers to the interaction of physical space, while at the same time, points to the remains of the spiritual desert humans are trapped in. In the void of "meaninglessness", the inner world has invisible boundaries, in which you can envision a splendorous, messy wonderland, or a space of pure desolation. With the percussion movement orchestrated by the inside and outside world in absence of each other, you can hear the voice of them both.

Credits:

Stylist: Laëtitia Gimenez Adam

Set Designer: Sati Leonne Faulks

Casting Director: Roxane Dia

Lookbook Photographer: Jessica Madavo

Show Photographer: Justine Paquette

Video Photographer: Mathieu Rabary

Choreographer: Mès Lesne

Models: Alici, Anais, Emily, Fidan, Kanta, Lola, Meng, Oceane, Qiutong, Ryo, Sali,

Sarah, Sasha, Tara

Makeup: Thierry do Nascimento

Hair: Nicolas Philippon