About Rui xu

Rui Xu is a fashion artist and researcher whose work bridges fashion, art, and research, integrating sustainable material innovation with performance, music, and choreography. Her cross-disciplinary practice also extends to collaborations as a guest artist with leading AI companies. Beyond design, her research advances greener technologies and circular systems for fashion, supported by national funding. She is currently a Doctoral Researcher and a Full Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).

She became Head of the Fashion Department at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2012 and was appointed Associate Professor in 2013, serving until 2016. During postgraduate research at the Royal College of Art, she founded RUIXU Studio in London in 2015, which quickly attracted an international clientele from the cultural and creative industries. In 2016, she contributed mask designs to the London Animal Ball, helping raise £1.7 million for Elephant Family, the UK’s largest wildlife charity supported by King Charles III, alongside leading luxury brands.

Xu has presented solo exhibitions and multidisciplinary performances at world-renowned institutions including Christie’s (London), the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Saatchi Gallery, and the Zaha Hadid Design Gallery, as well as at universities and cultural institutions such as Aalto University, the University of Michigan, the University of California, and the Musée des Confluences in Lyon, among others.

Her couture collection Xiang Wang Yi, grounded in Chinese classical fashion aesthetics, together with its accompanying publication, has received multiple international awards: the Red Dot Design Award (Berlin), the Design for Asia Gold Award (Hong Kong), the Most Beautiful Book of China (Shanghai), the Silver Award at the China National Fine Art Exhibition, and recognition from the Tokyo Type Directors Club (Japan).

Her works are represented in permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Zaha Hadid family, Clarence House, and the China Silk Museum, among other institutions, organisations, and private collectors. Her designs have also been featured in Vogue Italia, Porsche’s Christophorus magazine, as well as other leading industry publications and academic journals.

Photo courtesy of Porsche AG © 2017 by Niklas Haze