Fashion designer Kim Shui chose one of New York’s most dramatic backdrops to unveil her Spring 2025 collection: the 102nd floor of One World Trade Center. On a warm night during New York Fashion Week, she delivered a carefully choreographed show—a culmination of months of work and meticulous planning, all wrapped beautifully in a tulle bow.
For Kim, organization isn’t a preference. It’s what makes that kind of execution possible. In high fashion, a single runway show can take six months to plan—but that work comes to life in a 10-minute presentation. There’s no room for things to fall through the cracks. The creative vision only works if the systems behind it do.
I spoke with Kim about her creative process, the complexities of being a designer in today’s digital landscape, and how she used Notion to organize her latest NYFW preparations.
Niki Frias: Congratulations on an incredible show! One World Trade Center, 102 floors up—that's not your typical runway venue. What kind of challenges are there coordinating a NYFW event like that? How did Notion fit into pulling it off?
Kim Shui: This show was especially ambitious—presenting 102 floors above New York meant a lot of moving parts, from guest logistics to coordinating teams in such a unique space. Notion became the central hub where everything lived: Schedules, mood boards, run-of-show. It allowed the entire team to see updates in real time, which was critical. Having that single source of truth kept us aligned so I could stay focused on the creative vision, even with the scale and pressure of NYFW.
NF: Can you walk me through your process a bit? When you're going from initial concept to actual completed items, how do you collect inspiration?
KS: My process always starts with intuition. I’ll sketch, pull references, or even photograph textures that catch my eye. Those fragments build into a larger mood board. With Notion, I can collect all of that in one place and start to see connections. That’s when the story begins to take shape. The digital organization helps me step back and see how different threads come together, which makes the translation to final garments more intentional.
NF: You have to balance the physical, hands on process of fashion design with the digital organization component. How do you move between those two worlds?
KS: For me, it’s become a rhythm. I’ll be deep in the studio draping or working with fabrics, and then I’ll switch to digital when I need to zoom out. That’s where Notion plays a role—I can document sketches, notes, or fabric swatches I’m experimenting with, and instantly share them with my team. It creates a bridge between the very physical, tactile side of design and the need to communicate direction clearly in real time.
NF: It seems important to be able to archive your fashion influences over time. How do you think about preserving your own work?
KS: Digital documentation creates a different kind of accessibility. With Notion, I can build my own evolving archive that’s searchable, cross-referenced, and instantly shareable with my team. I see it less as replacing traditional archives, and more as extending them. It allows me to honor history while also creating a living, breathing record of my own work that future collections can continue to draw from. Instead of stacks of physical references that live in boxes, I can preserve and tag influences in a way that’s quickly and immediately accessible. So I don't think my digital archive replaces the richness of a physical archive. Instead, it's a living version that evolves as my work does.
NF: Last one: How do you balance creative exploration with practical production constraints?
KS: As a designer you want freedom, but production is about deadlines, resources, and logistics. Notion helps me map both. I can lay out timelines and deliverables alongside creative boards. Having the structure actually frees me, because I don’t carry all the logistics in my head. I know they’re accounted for, so I can push creatively without losing sight of reality.
NF: Thanks for sitting down with me Kim. And bravo on a wonderful NYFW show.
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