HUI showcases 'Aurora' collection at Milan Fashion Week

Shenzhen-based fashion brand HUI lit up Milan Fashion Week with its “Aurora” Fall 2025 ready-to-wear collection. Held on Sunday in Palazzo Clerici, one of Milan's historic landmarks, the show embodied designer Zhao Huizhou’s concept of “Weave Your Light. Be Brave, Be Yourself,” which aims to inspire hope and resilience.

Shenzhen-based fashion brand HUI unveiles its“Aurora” Fall 2025 ready-to-wear collection in Palazzo Clerici, Milan, on Sunday. Photos courtesy of HUI

“I hope to bring people closer through my designs so as to safeguard the hope for humanity,” Zhao said during an interview.

The "Aurora" collection drew inspiration from the Chinese myth of the sun goddess Xihe and the ancient Greek god Apollo's sun chariot, blending Eastern and Western mythology. Designs featured solar disk patterns and sunbeam embroidery, with a bold, contrasting color palette of dark blue, representing the universe, and orange, symbolizing dawn. 

The "Aurora" theme was further expressed through the effect of sunlight shining through the clouds on translucent organza fabric, multi-layered colors on velvet and transparent gauze, and accessories accented with a bright, golden color.

Models walk the runway at Palazzo Clerici in Milan, presenting HUI’s 2025 fall collection in Milan on Sunday. 

HUI’s 2025 fall collection continued its focus on the craftsmanship of China's intangible cultural heritage by incorporating batik (wax-resist dyeing) from the Miao ethnic group, the Golden Dragon Amidst Clouds motif, and silk and gambiered Guangdong gauze.

This season, HUI collaborated with Guizhou Textile Group to launch the “Guizhou Textile Group • HUI Milano” co-branded collection. Its designs incorporate brocade and embroidery from Guizhou Province, intricately outlined with seven-colored silk, cotton, and linen threads to create patterns that symbolize ethnic unity and convey inclusivity.

The HUI design team spent two years immersing themselves in traditional villages across Guizhou and closely working with intangible cultural heritage artisans for the 11 co-branded pieces showcased on the runway. By applying a deconstructivist approach, they reinterpreted traditional motifs, striving for a seamless blend of cultural storytelling and contemporary aesthetics.

As part of the grand showcase, the "Intangible Heritage Redesign" project — jointly led by HUI and the HUI Foundation — introduced the "Guizhou Embroidery" workshop, blending art therapy with public art.

The "Weaving Light Journey" art therapy project was a cross-disciplinary collaboration between HUI and Yuan Yuan, a Chinese artist and art therapist. In this immersive experience, the Le Sciure group — a collective of elderly women from Milan dedicated to social welfare for over 30 years under the association Coltivare la Città — partnered with Chinese youth to weave red threads onto fragments of ancient ceramics. Through this process, these broken pieces were given new life and transformed into works of art that embody collective memory and hope.

Guided by the innovative concept of "Weave Your Light," HUI will continue exploring new possibilities in intangible cultural heritage redesign and art therapy. As Zhao mentioned in an interview, "The aesthetics of intangible cultural heritage are not a relic of history but a language of the future."