Kim Shui FW25 Explores Sensuality and Subversion
Merging Chinese and Western cultures in a collection that calls us to question traditional thoughts on power, intimacy and identity.
Ever since she won a VFILES Runway Show during New York Fashion Week in 2016 for her Fall/Winter 2026 collection, Downtown New York City’s Kim Shui has been a notable disruptor in the womenswear space. For the Fall/Winter 2025 season, however, Shui is specifically focusing on disrupting our established beliefs and learned behaviors, encouraging us to reconsider traditional structures of power and notions of identity and intimacy.
Shui invited a sizeable (and incredibly well-dressed) group of attendees – Joey Bada$$ and SAINt JHN included – to a glamorous Upper East Side ballroom in which a square setup of seats surrounded a striking hanging crystal chandelier in the center of the room. The designer’s 43-look Fall/Winter collection seeks to explore the relationship between “sensuality and restraint through texture and form, offering a “visual and tactile journey that explores themes of agency, control and resistance,” the show notes read.
Drawing heavy design inspiration from Italian artist Monica Bonvicini’s usage of leather belts and handcuffs, Shui selected pleather as what she’s called her “medium of transformation.” Prominent throughout the collection, laser-cut pleather comes fringed, draped, shredded and otherwise distressed inviting us to perceive the material through a new lens and “disrupting its traditional association with dominance and toughness.” A metaphor for the message behind the entire range, Shui’s usage of exaggerated silhouettes and tactile materials continues to push preconceived notions of power and sensuality.
Shui connects her Chinese heritage with Western culture, juxtaposing faux fur cowboy hats and bolo ties with Qipao collaring and traditional Chinese embroidery. The snake – which symbolizes rebirth and renewal – also slithers into the high-octane offering, surfacing on smartly structured gowns on which lace and faux fur are coiled together to resemble the shape of two snakes as well as a handful of snakeskin-printed trousers and tops.
In classic Shui fashion, her fine-tuned vision runs down to the details, with the collection’s accessories like butt-shaped pleather bags further driving the provocative and thought-provoking presentation home.
As the show notes close out, each of the collection’s 43 looks encourages a “rethinking of the symbols that define us,” in that creating a captivating look at “autonomy and agency.”
Explore Kim Shui’s Fall Winter 2025 collection in the runway images above and take a look backstage with photographer Sarah Schecker below.
