New York label LII marries 1990s minimalism with a sense of play

Rising talent, names to know: ‘Uprising’ is a monthly feature highlighting an energetic new vanguard of fashion talent, selected by the Wallpaper* style team.

Name: Zane Li

Brand: LII

Alumnus of: Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)

City: New York, USA

Signature style: Sharp, clever, architecturally-cut designs that approach ideas of minimalism with a sense of play

Design philosophy

Zane Li grew up in Chongqing, China, the son of a beauty industry professional who encouraged him to enjoy the visual splendour in things. ‘By nature, my mother was interested in re-invention and outward expression, so I grew up influenced by that some way or another,’ the New York-based designer tells Wallpaper*. ‘She valued my opinions a lot. She loved to go shopping with me, and would even ask me to organise her closet and come up with looks for her.’

As a teenager, this developed into a fascination with US magazines. Though Li couldn’t understand what was written in them, the bold visuals in mid-2010s editions of Joe McKenna and Marie-Amélie Sauvé’s eras of T Magazine – ‘ironically, my now-partner worked there during that time,’ he says – shaped the design identity he carved out during his studies at FIT, and laterally, under his namesake brand LII, which was launched swiftly upon graduating in 2024.

Unlike the majority of DIY upstarts in New York, Li’s brand has arrived seemingly fully formed. Just four collections in, and the shrewd, sharp elegance of his world speaks of a designer well beyond his years. Minimal while striking notes of play, Li’s curiously architectural silhouettes celebrate and conceal the body in unexpected ways, so that slivers of skin peek out from boxy forms or garments float over the wearer in elegant, geometric configurations. Already showing in Paris, he’s undoubtedly one of the most exciting exports to emerge from New York in recent years.

Though his clothes pulse with life – thanks in part to the bold, clean colour palettes he works in – Li starts each design from the rudimentary beginnings of a flat shape. ‘When I pattern-make, I like to start everything in a very flat way – a square, a box, or a piece of strip,’ he explains. ‘By adding the curves of the torso to these straightforward points and lines, the shapes that might be contradictory to how people normally wear clothes reveal themselves naturally. We do rounds of editing until we feel like the shape is right.’

There’s more than meets the eye to this process. Li’s philosophy sits between practicality and beauty, specifically needling at the borders of where modes of dress, fabrics, and colours have been deemed inappropriate for one kind of person or social space and appropriate for another. ‘We're always thinking of what a ‘smart’ man or woman would want to wear, and of how being “smart” doesn't preclude you from being sexy, young or silly, so that's where we're merging the living and architectural qualities together.’

Expanding into menswear over the past two seasons, Li’s latest collection, S/S 2026 men’s, toyed with familiar archetypes such as the jock, the rockstar, the businessman, and the nerd. These figures were somewhat blended, so that blokey workwear jackets were paired with 1980s ultra-short shorts, their leg-baring vulnerability lending a deliberate whiff of dorkiness aided by clunky derby shoes. Elsewhere, boyish stripes and layered jersey pieces – a vest over a tee over a long sleeve – were offset by papery organza raincoats so delicate you could see the colour of the garments worn beneath, while Li’s architectural skill came through in a series of sweeping anoraks in shiny lacquered black and cyan blue. It was, he says, about twisting tropes and making them feel modern, ‘without the aggressive masculine connotations’.

‘Truthfully, I wasn't as personally driven to design men's as much as women's, for the obvious reasons: I think women's offers so much more excitement and dimensionality,’ he admits. Li’s women’s clothes are, indeed, astoundingly beautiful. His last collection, A/W 2025, began with the sighting of an eclectic pile of clothes on a friend’s sofa, sparking a story that layered the ease of billowing drawstring sweats, cascading handkerchief dresses, and lustrous slimline tailoring.

Menswear has been less about impulse and more a certain kind of exercise. ‘I think some of the more sedate, classic ideas are the ones I am most proud of this season. It's not so easy to create new classics anymore. That's the challenge and beauty of designing menswear: the constraint and discipline.’

While whispers of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s midcentury glamour or the cool formality of 1990s Jil Sander can be picked up from his clothes, Li’s sharp design language is undeniably his own. In fact, it's not clothes, but the worlds of cinema and music that inspire him most. ‘I think the designer influences in my work are clear and can't be denied for a recent graduate born of the social media era,’ he says. ‘But what inspires me most is cinema and music. Directors like Michael Haneke, David Cronenberg, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, how their use of sound, image and all the other elements make you feel.’

Little more than a year into his brand, Li has hit the ground running – but wisely, he’s set on keeping momentum at his own pace. ‘There's so much pressure on designers to be everything for everyone these days, and of being successful quickly,’ he says. ‘Perhaps I’m a bit naive when it comes to launching a brand, but I feel at ease with doing things at my own pace, and of looking at the long run. I'm learning a lot as I go, having never even worked for anyone, which is simultaneously overwhelming and liberating.’

In their words

‘I think minimalism, especially in recent years, gets a bad rap for being quiet or sterile, but for me, the starkness, uniformity and precision is all the more of an intentional statement. Certainly the “playfulness” comes forward in the use of colour, which maybe you don't always associate with a cleaner aesthetic.’

Where to buy

lii-studio.com