Ray Chu AW25

The energy at Ray Chu’s AW25 showcase was a magnetic blend of audacity and vulnerability. Titled "CHAPTER V: KISS ME", the collection marked Chu’s London Fashion Week presentation with a statement; fashion is not just worn, it’s felt. The Soho venue, intimate yet charged, became a stage for silhouettes that defied gender norms, wrapped in a dreamy palette of dusky pinks and molten metallics.

The stage was set as an elaborate banquet and we were all invited guests to dine with the fashion elite. Chu’s designs danced between structure and fluidity. The collaboration with Japanese artist Tomomi Mizukoshi lent an ethereal touch, with hand-painted motifs whispering tales of love’s many forms. Sustainability wasn’t an afterthought. Taiwanese lab LAB 808’s eco-conscious fabrics grounded the fantasy in purpose.

Models moved like characters in a noir film, their looks punctuated by accessories that blurred art and utility; chokers doubling as lockets, gloves embroidered with fragmented sonnets. The star of the show was a sheer gown adorned with 3D-printed floral appliqués, a nod to Chu’s Taiwanese roots, romantic yet razor-sharp.

In a season saturated with nostalgia, Chu’s vision felt urgently now. His agender ethos challenges the industry’s binaries, while the collection’s emotional core, love as rebellion, resonates beyond the runway.