We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful ZuRui Chen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with ZuRui below.

ZuRui, appreciate you joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

If someone had asked me this question three years ago I would answered “earlier”. On one side, I always knew that my goal was to be an independent designer, and my dream is to establish my own brand and have my creative freedom. On the other side, I constantly compare myself to others around my age through the internet. Especially living in LA, where I went to college, so many young adults, even teenagers, are gaining success. It is so hard not to look at them, and have this sense of unevenness. But what is funny is that it seems like the universe keeps sending me signals to not be in a rush, The pandemic happened after I graduated college, so I took a few months to figure out if I was really ready. Then I decided to get a job, I worked as a fashion designer and branding director for a small e-commerce business in China for about a year, besides the full-time job, I also worked as a freelance visual designer to support my living. I still don’t feel like I am ready, and I decided to go to grad school. luckily I went to a program that gave me full creative freedom, I was fully into my craft, developing and polishing my skills. And after that, I felt I was ready. If I started after I graduated college, I would not be mature and know enough, about the business, nor myself. Maybe it could turn out beautifully, but the younger me would go through things in the hardest possible ways, and I could lose my passion for creativity and forget my dream. I realized that the most important thing is to know yourself, and doing thing in your own pace.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am happy to! My name is ZuRui Chen, I am a fashion designer who believes in the power of storytelling. Fashion to me is creating characters, clothes are for people to wear and I want to help my clients to become whoever they want to be. I take custom orders and provide one-to-one services for my clients. What I value is the knowledge of garment-making and the time and effort I put into creating. I want to be the one who dares to chill a little bit, who puts more time into thinking and observing, who pays more attention to details, and who makes things sustainable.
I am currently developing my brand. My goal is to create a realm where the time goes a little bit slower, each collection will based on a story, and as the collections go, the universe will keep revealing to my audiences. We all have our favorite films and music pieces, we rewatch and rewind and don’t get tired, we put ourselves into that world authors created, and for a second, we forget the chaos and noises, it is only ourselves with pure emotions. For me having this realm is rebellious, in this fast-paced world, It is easy to forget about the things we treasure or to fully immerse into fantasies, and that is why I want to have a brand, to welcome anyone who wants to find their sparks. so with exclusive custom services, we also have approachable ready-to-wear for everybody.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I used to immerse myself in my crafts and was not interested in meeting new people, I was comfortable with my close circles of friends. I have a habit of being fully sincere to people, which in a way added burdens and pressure on myself. After moving to New York, I was constantly introduced to new people, and having conversations with them made me realize that there are no rules and I don’t have to be an open book to everyone, I learned to chill about socializing.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I’m still very new to management and entrepreneurship, but “The Devil Wears Prada” and “The Intern” for sure are two movies that initiated me wanting to know about those things, how to treat people in a working environment, and how to perspectively thinking.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://zuruichen.com
• Instagram: @zurui18