Meet Ruoyan Er | Bohemian Knitwear Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ruoyan Er and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ruoyan, what inspires you?
I think I’m a good listener and empathy is very strong. Most of my inspiration comes from my own experiences and the stories I hear from others. My friend Nico Zhao is a therapist and I often hear powerful stories from her that are so uplifting that they make me want to express through garments.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I don’t think I’ve actually been lucky in my fashion journey, but it’s certainly been one step at a time. I started studying fashion ten years ago, dedicated myself to traditional dress research also worked as a buyer, of course I did stage styling for artists, I worked as an assistant for haute couture designers, I worked on bridal and street brands, in all that time I have been teaching children at different levels and nowadays my side business is making functional clothing. I think the hardest thing is discovering who you are. A lot of people tell me “you just have to find the goal and work hard to achieve it.” But the longer I’ve been in the industry the more I’ve been confused about what kind of designer I should be. I feel like the more I learn and absorb, the more ignorant I become. But in the end, it’s always positive that you’re climbing up the ladder and moving forward because you don’t know when you’re going to meet your destiny by chance. But the turnaround came in a very funny way. I was overly bored during the quarantine of the epidemic and learned to knit, and I didn’t realize that it would be a hit. I started to use textile surfaces to express my emotions, to fight the world, and I even felt like I was slowly finding out who I was and what I wanted to achieve in life.
Challenges remain. The gap between the artist and the market is huge, and I’m trying to find that balance by working on several things at the same time. But I feel very good about it, and it just gives me more opportunities to experience different things in life!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Lol if it was last month I would have taken them to Burning Man. But missed it, I would say Bombay Beach on la east coast. Can see the sadness of that pebbledown, postmodernist nomadic artist still trying to spend his life fighting the world against the dominant aesthetic.

Atlanta… Maybe the High.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I particularly like Oscar Wilde and William Yeats. I think it’s rare to express the sometimes shallow and sometimes obscure self and reflect social pressures in times of change. There is a shouting power that will resonate with the youth of the next, if not several, generations. Like Jeanette Winterson in her Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit often uses Yeats’ text as an internal resonance for the young protagonist, who inspires me very much. I’ve taken the line from his lapis lazuli carving as a motto for my life：All things fall and are built again, and those that build them again are gay.

Website: https://erruoyan.wixsite.com/website

Instagram: @geki_b

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruoyan-er-8680151ab/

Twitter: @ErRuoyan

Image Credits
Photograph : Shan Shi Designer : Ruoyan Er