Introducing Ruohan, Quiet Luxury’s Next Brand To Know

Sometimes, it’s the little things that make the biggest impact. This Spring/Summer ’25, Chinese brand Ruohan created its showstopping moment through restraint and intrigue, leaving an iPod-style device on the seats of its show for guests to find. Inside? A track by none other than Minimalist icon Terry Riley — In C, which speaks to the monumentality of small gestures and delicacy.

Not only that, but Riley’s musical language here works through fragments that are woven together like threads. Perhaps it’s this that makes his work almost poetically appropriate for this former classical musician turned designer, who used the work to punctuate her brand’s perennial aesthetic.

Music and fashion have long made for excellent bedfellows—whether high or low, historical or modern. But in Ruohan’s world, the relationship is presented (atypically) as nuanced and understated.

The Shanghai-based brand, founded in 2021 by Ruohan Nie, is refreshingly out of step with her young contemporaries. Predicting the shift towards quiet luxury, it has achieved a breathtaking amount in 3 years— debuting at Paris Fashion Week (PFW), collaborations with over 70 selected retailers around the world, and a nomination for the prestigious Andam Prize.

This latest Paris show in September confirms this. Held at Lafayette Anticipation—an art gallery in the heart of the Marais—guests were treated to a performance from a live orchestra. On the runway, looks were precisely tailored with impeccable details in sumptuous fabrics; jersey, hand-pleated linen, denim, and water-soluble cashmere all sourced from mills in Italy and Japan. Hues echo the orchestra: the black and whites of the keyboard; the softer nudes, sandy beiges, and light browns of the strings followed by navy and luminous gold of the brass.

After the show, Nie, who previously studied the cello and piano, is radiant. “I wanted this to be like a manuscript or a blank score—where you write your notes. You start with the strings, then a vivid brass like little birds and then percussion to give pace or the beat,” she explained of the collection, which takes its starting point from music theory’s counterpoint, a pre-classical form of music.

Not only is it conceptually intriguing, but the collection is larger (42 looks) and more accessible with extra draping, knitwear, and sculptural looks than in previous seasons. It also features two upcoming collaborations: a special capsule for retailer Lane Crawford (an early supporter ) and a tie-up with Spanish accessories company Hereu.

CEO Waël Benkerrour, who joined the company a year ago, said the business now has a joint focus—China, and internationally, where the strategy is slightly different for each. Rather than continue to expand, it is choosing to have less doors in the Chinese market. “Luckily we are growing but we don’t want to increase the number of stores since for most of our stockists, our sales through is good” he says. Globally, the plan is to enter into major key players, market by market, step by step. Isetan, Galeries Lafayette Paris & Ssense are all part of the first retail stream.

On a call from Italy, Benkerrour shared the vision: “We want to take our time to build a brand, we don’t want to rush. We have a 7-10 year plan so we want to take our time to do things in the right order, especially internationally where we need to show stability. The Andam [nomination] also helped to give us credibility in the industry.”

From Paris to China, Q1 2025 will see them move into a new office in Shanghai with a showroom to welcome media and buyers. Plans for a standalone store in China are afoot which, given the right opportunity, could be as soon as 2025—according to Benkerrour. Before then, there’s the matter of Shanghai Fashion Week where it hosts a showroom for local buyers.

With the quiet luxury trend looking set to continue throughout the decade, Ruohan’s sophisticated elegance should continue to play very well.