JUZUI Debuts at New York Fashion Week with Painterly Autumn/Winter 2024 Collection

Discover an elegant feminine runway collection at New York Fashion Week for Autumn/Winter 2024 from Chinese luxury brand JUZUI, newly creatively led by celebrated fashion designer Taoray Wang to bring a fresh style for modern businesswomen from East to West both in and out of the office. Maye Musk - mother to Elon Musk, entrepreneur and classic model - closed the show.

Chinese-born brand JUZUI made a stellar first impression at New York Fashion Week on February 11, 2024 with a collection that draws inspiration from Eastern elements like the poetic blossoming peony, perfectly meshed with the Western fashion scene through exciting textures, flowing silhouettes, and a vibrant colour palette.

The brand debuted its new Autumn/Winter 2024 collection at the Starrett-Lehigh building in New York City, bringing a moment of peaceful beauty to the bustling city for its runway show. Delicate designs of watercolour blooms and abstract prints open the show, using pairings of rich jewel tones with dainty pastels for a pleasing contrast within each look. Recently appointed JUZUI creative director Taoray Wang notes, “in Blossoms Shanghai it is said, ‘Silence is not the loudest.’ Yet, the blooming peonies cultivated by JUZUI insist on making a vibrant statement. With dazzling colors and outstanding craftsmanship, the brand's originality from China resonates loudly on the stage of New York Fashion Week, creating a captivating spectacle.” Audiences were captivated indeed as the looks float down the catwalk – with airbrushed and gauzy ruffles, trailing skirts, and feathery furs adding an innate sense of movement in each model that is difficult to turn away from. 

Wang brings her signature style and long experience to JUZUI for the brand’s first showcase at New York Fashion Week, but the creative is no stranger to the Western runway. Wang previously held the title of Creative Director at the Charles Jourdan brand, as well as leading roles at her eponymous label Taoray Wang, Bosideng, and Junko Koshino. The new collection for JUZUI centers around a peony motif, a flower rooted in the East and historically celebrated in poetry. Employing expressive and artistic techniques, the brand depicts the flower on exquisite garments that together resemble a blooming spring garden with a myriad of peonies in full colour and bloom. 

For JUZUI’s first showcase at New York Fashion Week, the decision to bring Wang onto the JUZUI team is a confident one, as the creative director has cemented herself here and shown collections as both herself and her own brand over sixteen times in the past at New York Fashion Week. Wang tells me that previously, her styles have suited a blazer-heavy design story with more powerful elements. “This season, JUZUI invited me to join the brand – which is very feminine in contrast with lots of flowers, fur, and bright colours – for this powerful aesthetic. They want to blend all of this together and create a new style. For me, with such a feminine brand compared to my own more structured brand with power suits and the like, it’s something new.” 

On her own evolution, Wang muses: “I used to only find suits powerful, always a blazer. But through this collection, I start to think that to be a feminine but powerful woman, you don’t always need to wear dark and serious colours. I think that sometimes, this femininity and beautiful colour palette can cheer you on and cheer you up in this very complicated world.”

JUZUI looks to bring this something new to their customers both new and established: the brand already has over 600 storefronts operating in China to date. For their budding Western audience though, the brand is fresh, looking to carve a place in the industry here for its own bright yet powerful aesthetic and clientele. Wang explains, “Our customer in China is a little bit senior, but very feminine. But this being feminine…(is not exclusive to being successful.) Our customer is also very successful in her career, using her talents and her career in life to blend alongside her bright personality. It’s a more outgoing influence, not just in a power suit and looking serious.” 

What does Wang look forward to for JUZUI as they break into a new market in New York? She tells me, “we call it rebranding, because we are trying to adjust JUZUI’s aim.” The brand has already existed for over twenty years, and Wang says “sometimes you get lost. This season, we look to release the brand in New York and find a good DNA match here.” The brand will primarily focus on an online presence currently, rather than building a brick-and-mortar empire as they have established in the East. 

JUZUI continues to seek the perfect balance between fashion, refinement, and practical aesthetics. They integrate fashion resources from both international and domestic realms to focus on elegance, grandeur, classic elements, and contemporary fashion. JUZUI employs high-quality fabrics, intricate details, elegant colors, and patterns in its designs that aim to depict modern urban woman: confident, elegant, and feminine. They provide a diverse range of dressing experiences for career women worldwide through fashionable designs and clever tailoring that speak volumes.

JUZUI certainly made a splash in New York with their debut runway show at NYFW, as classic model and dietician Maye Musk herself joined the team to walk the catwalk in the brand’s closing look. As the mother of history-carving technological entrepreneur Elon Musk and a public figure in her own right, Musk perfectly exemplifies the bright and successful woman that the JUZUI brand caters to. She has appeared numerous magazine covers over her long career of over fifty years in the modeling industry, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. 

A picture of power painted in bright peonies and rich watercolour splashes, JUZUI’s Autumn/Winter 2024 collection looks bring something new to office-and-beyond dressing for the modern woman. The brand brings much to offer the career-driven and outgoing woman of any age in both East and West. We look forward to seeing the brand jumpstart its unique presence here in New York, translating its established work in China to a brand new audience. We expect creative director Taoray Wang will lead JUZUI well to find its footing as an international emerging designer, exemplifying feminine power in a unique way through unapologetically artistic design.

CREDITS

_{Writer: Laur Weeks @laur.weeks}

_{Photographer: Charles Barnes @charles.l.barnes}

_{Designer: Juzui} 

_{PR: Purple PR @purplepr}

_{Make Up: Romana New York}

_{Hair: Cutler Salon}

_{Lighting Design: Florian Schreiter, FSL}

_{Set Design: Chris Zeig, SBI}

_{Music: Laurent Vacher, Maison Labtonic}

_{Production: The Riviere Agency}

_{Casting: David Milo Casting}

_{Showcaller: Lynne O’Neill}

_{Brand Management: Evelyn Yuan and Shin Advisors}