Zane Li, who started his namesake label Lii fresh out of FIT, is one of those rare designers who appear on the scene fully-formed. In a little over two years he has established a clear visual vocabulary—sport fabrics, sleek lines, saturated color—and an intent with his work: what happens if I take this shape and skew it slightly? His clothes are simple yet not; you can just pull them over your head and go. (See a shift dress with slits at the princess seams for the arms.) The result is something deconstructed and maybe even playfully cerebral. After decamping to Paris for two seasons to show his collection by appointment; he returned to New York to stage his first-ever runway show in a small gallery in Tribeca with a Pepto-pink rug.
Because Li’s is a kind of minimalism that isn’t flat, the runway is a good setting to surprise and delight. A model walks towards you wearing a navy blue pencil skirt, and as she walks away an emerald green square interrupts the rectangular shape of the skirt; her thighs are now exposed, and she’s wearing a mini skirt in back. Another skirt folds over into itself from the hem up, to create a kind of “cowl,” the dimensionality of the piece heightened by the simple heavy cotton t-shirt with a panty-line hem (imagine a bodysuit where the crotch doesn’t connect) it’s paired with.
“The starting point was the movie Memoria directed by this Thai director, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, that talks about how certain sounds can activate memories—the keys in your pocket, or the sound of breaking glass can bring back certain memories from the past,” Li explained. “When we started to think about doing our first runway show, and the clothes finally being presented in movement, [we asked ourselves] what kind of impression do we want them to leave? I started thinking about how the fabrics sound and what memories those sounds arouse.” Towards the end of the show a model walked out in a simple sheath dress in aqua sheer nylon with a pair of pink leggings underneath, except she wasn’t actually wearing them, they just sort of floated in front of her legs as if they were floating on water.
The runway show took place with the support of Nike, and there were six looks on the runway made in collaboration with the sportswear giant. The highlight was a long hooded parka made from the same fabric Nike uses to manufacture its golf bags. “We added an opening in the back seam, and slits underneath the sleeves, so you can wear it normally and you have vents,” Li explained. On the runway he showed the decidedly not normal version: one where the head was looped through the hole in the center back and the real neckline became a kind of gathered cutout at the chest. A red cropped jacket with a V-neck and a V-shaped hem with subtle princess seams was also “abnormal.” It had an unexpectedly elegant cocoon shape in the back.
