Rhuigi Villaseñor Gives Fashion a RHUDE Awakening
By wchung | 27 Mar, 2025

A young Filipino American from the Valley has alchemized street styles into downbeat fashion’s cutting edge.

If RHUDE hasn't been on your fashion radar the last few years, you were sipping decaf while Rhuigi Villaseñor has been serving espresso.

And your closet has probably been moping at having been denied luxury allure with an edgy streetwear twist — the effortless style we see all over social media and makes you wonder how someone can look so chill. 

Since 2015 charismatic style genius Rhuigi Villaseñor has been making a serious dent in the cutting edge of the fashion industry, taking streetwear to the next level. By seamlessly blending LA culture with a rock-and-roll beat, Villaseñor’s designs are, most importantly, authentic. 

Justin Bieber sports the Rhude look.

After he moved from Manila to the West Coast at age 11, Rhuigi was pushed by his father to become a doctor.  The boy had very different plans. Knowing that an artistic career is frowned upon in Filipino culture, Rhuigi nevertheless set his sights on fashion.  It didn’t take long for him to turn the streets of Los Angeles into his own personal runway. 

Rhuigi began building his empire at Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California. He was an oddball rarity, a valedictorian physics student who spent his free time in the campus fashion design studio bringing his sketches to life. 

He borrowed his mother’s laptop to launch the RHUDE website.  It featured a cotton black-and-white paisley print t-shirt totally inspired by West Coast culture.  That single t-shirt is the stroke of genius that took Rhuigi from San Fernando Valley to the biggest of Fashion Week runways.  

This shirt, priced ambitiously at $200, caught the attention of some famous names, including rapper Kendrick Lamar who was later gifted the shirt by Rhuigi himself.  The t-shirt caught fire, turning RHUDE into a $25 million business.

Athletes, music artists, even America’s highest paid models, have been spotted rocking his designs, proving that RHUDE isn’t just a fashion brand — it’s a persona, an attitude and a wardrobe staple for anyone looking to accelerate his street image in an unshy way. 

Marking Rhuigi’s ascendance to the status of cultural icon was an unexpected collaboration earlier this year between RHUDE and Verizon — yes, the tech giant.  An exclusive party to showcase a collection designed for Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, where the Eagles beat the Chiefs, let Rhuigi show everyone that he could mix fashion, culture and technology to produce something that transcended the streets that birthed RHUDE. 

Rhuigi lost no time leveraging that New Orleans energy by unveiling RHUDE’s 2025 Fall/Winter lookbook.  The collection is a love letter to the city, capturing the culture of NOLA with jazz-infused styles and bold southern streetwear.  Every piece tells a unique story. 

RHUDE is redefining luxury with every collection and Rhuigi Villaseñor is showing us that true style can be deeply authentic and fearless, pushing the boundaries of designer fashion.