Since Zane Li’s last men’s review, his New York-based label, LII, received the Fashion Trust US Prize in the ready-to-wear category, and was named a finalist for both the LVMH Prize and the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, taking place on September 4 and October 26 respectively. Pretty impressive for a brand that’s not even three years old.
From a showroom in the Marais, Li didn’t betray nerves. Instead, he expressed pride in being only the second designer from China to make it past the semi-finals (Rui Zhou, who ended up sharing the Karl Lagerfeld Prize with KidSuper’s Colm Dillane and Lukhanyo Mdingi, was the first in 2021).
By virtue of his sharp color selection—think stop sign red, industrial orange, emerald green, and sky for spring—Lii collections invariably deliver strong rack appeal. This season, however, he put more emphasis on high-contrast black and white, along with soft pastels. The result of the convergences across his palette was a kind of sweet spot between clinical and sporty. But more notably, Li has the ability to minimally rework wardrobe standards like a windbreaker or a long-sleeve T-shirt just enough for them to become wholly interesting.
In fact, the genesis for some of these pieces was how, whenever Li returns to Asia, he often observes cultural specificities that can be functional—see the sweat scarves and towel hats that nod to communal bath rituals—or else stylistic, like the girls who wear mint-green leggings. He kept returning to the word “weird,” as in, “they always wear something weird but it still blends in. I’m trying to take that and make it stand out but within the restraint and strictness of my approach to dressing.” While nothing veered too bizarro, tiered patchworked shirts with tails extending from both sides and jackets with patch pockets that looked like envelopes leaned more conceptual.
Li’s winter collections are big on puffer shapes and integrated layers. Here, it was clear his headspace was lighter: the same, slightly exaggerated yet well-proportioned shapes were cut in cotton jersey and ultra-crisp nylon. His take on shorts with buttoned side vents—second skin liners optional—would be appealing to girls as well as guys; likewise the bags modeled after the collapsible backpacks worn by Japanese children defined by the extra handle (to rein them in). Lii collections are excellently styled in a manner alluding to Raf’s Jil Sander years, pre-Prada, and Prada pre-Raf’s arrival; but just as much with the north star of American sportswear. Remixing these evergreen references with the ways of dressing absorbed through his Chinese heritage will be Li’s point of differentiation when he faces the heavyweight juries soon enough. Meanwhile, he should be prepared to meet high demand for the towel hat with its adjustable back. The Paris heatwave would suggest that sweat scarves will prove essential by this time next year.
