Designers / China · Ready-to-wear
RUIbuilt
Rui Zhou
RUIbuilt is a ready-to-wear label based in Shanghai, China, started in 2019. Behind the label: Rui Zhou. It is known for body-conscious pieces conceived as a second skin. Latest milestone on record (2025): The label becomes RUIbuilt.
Quick facts
RUIbuilt at a glance
- Behind the label
- Rui Zhou
- Based
- Shanghai, China
- Since
- 2019
- Focus
- Ready-to-wear
- Makes
- Ready-to-wear and accessories, sold as RUIbuilt since 2025
- Trained
- Fashion design, Tsinghua University; MFA Fashion Design and Society, Parsons (2018)
- Official site
- ruiofficial.me ↗
- @ruiofficial.me ↗
The person and the label
Who is behind RUIbuilt?
Rui Zhou was born in Hunan in 1994, studied fashion design at Tsinghua University in Beijing and completed the MFA Fashion Design and Society programme at Parsons in New York in 2018. She founded her label, RUI, in New York in 2019; the LVMH Prize lists Shanghai as its main studio. She treats a garment as a second layer of skin, paying attention to the space between body and fabric, and takes a taste for asymmetry and imperfection from wabi-sabi. She won the Karl Lagerfeld Prize at the 2021 LVMH Prize and was an International Woolmark Prize finalist in 2022. In 2025 the label became RUIbuilt; its site describes a 2024 showpiece of hand-stitched mini fabric tiles that now inspires pieces in the label’s signature stretch fabric.
Timeline
RUIbuilt, dated
- 2018Graduates from the Parsons MFA Fashion Design and Society programme. Source ↗
- 2019Rui Zhou founds her label, RUI, in New York. Source ↗
- 2021Wins the Karl Lagerfeld Prize at the LVMH Prize. Source ↗
- 2022Named a finalist for the International Woolmark Prize. Source ↗
- 2025The label becomes RUIbuilt. Source ↗
More from China
Other China labels to know
- Guo Pei Couture and eveningwear · since 1997
- UMA WANG Ready-to-wear · since 2009
- HUISHAN ZHANG Ready-to-wear · since 2012
- ZIGGY CHEN Menswear · since 2012
- ROBERT WUN Couture and eveningwear · since 2014
- FENG CHEN WANG Menswear · since 2017
- SUSAN FANG Ready-to-wear · since 2017
- SHUTING QIU Ready-to-wear
- PRONOUNCE Menswear · since 2016
- DIDU Ready-to-wear · since 2019
- RUOHAN Ready-to-wear · since 2021
Read the full China guide, with the method behind it and where to see the work in person.
Sources
Sources
Represent RUIbuilt and spotted an error? Send a correction with a link to the record.
Quick answers
RUIbuilt, answered
Who is behind RUIbuilt?
- Rui Zhou. RUIbuilt is a ready-to-wear label based in Shanghai.
When was RUIbuilt founded?
- 2019, according to the sources listed on this page.
What does RUIbuilt make?
- Ready-to-wear and accessories, sold as RUIbuilt since 2025. It is known for body-conscious pieces conceived as a second skin.
Where did the designer of RUIbuilt train?
- Fashion design, Tsinghua University; MFA Fashion Design and Society, Parsons (2018).