Zane Li is making clothes that look deliberately 'wrong'. For Lii's Spring/Summer 2027 collection at New York Fashion Week, the 25-year-old designer shifted tops off-centre, stacked simple shapes and layered pieces in ways that made everyday clothes look new.
The collection was shown in New York on Monday, 14 September, during a major moment for Li. Ten days earlier, he received the Karl Lagerfeld Prize at the 2026 LVMH Prize and was also listed among this year's CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalists.
Instead of hiding the strange parts of his designs, Li put them at the centre of the collection. Tank tops sat at odd angles, dresses stood away from the body and bright blocks of red, blue, pink, green and black turned simple shapes into some of the show's biggest statements.
Zane Li Makes 'Wrong' Feel Right
One of the clearest ideas was the way Li moved familiar clothes away from where people expect them to sit. Tank tops were placed off-centre and layered with other pieces, creating deliberately skewed versions of familiar wardrobe staples.
That approach could be seen throughout the collection, where contrasting layers and blocks of colour created silhouettes that seemed slightly out of place but still worked as complete outfits.
Li has said that he enjoys this sense of 'offness' in his work. Speaking about his approach to womenswear, he explained that some pieces may not be fully functional or traditional, but that the tension created by those choices is something he finds interesting.
Simple Shapes Become Strange Clothes
The unusual proportions did not depend on heavy decoration. Instead, Li used flat construction and geometric forms to build dimension around the body, turning relatively simple shapes into clothes with unexpected volume and asymmetry.
Some dresses were pushed away from the body through unusual construction, while contrasting sections of fabric created deliberately uneven silhouettes. Rather than trying to make both sides of a garment match, Li repeatedly made imbalance part of the design.
One pink strapless dress showed the idea clearly, with a contrasting red section falling from one side near the hem. The effect turned asymmetry into one of the defining features of the look.
The 1960s Get a Sporty Update
There was also a clear link to 1960s youth style, but Li did not simply copy clothes from the decade. Minidresses, bright colours and simple shapes were mixed with sporty elements and other contemporary details.
The collection drew inspiration from several places, including Jeanne Lanvin's archive and paintings by American artist Alex Katz. Li also pointed to Brenda Lee's song 'Emotions', recorded in 1960 and released in 1961, as part of the thinking behind the collection.
Lee recorded the song while still a teenager, prompting Li to think about the relationship between age, experience and emotion. Those ideas fed into a wider exploration of girlhood and womanhood rather than turning the collection into a direct recreation of 1960s fashion.
Sportswear Gets Pulled Apart
Sportswear remained an important part of Lii's design language, but Li treated familiar athletic and practical elements in unconventional ways. Sporty details appeared alongside more structured silhouettes, reinforcing the tension between familiar clothing and unexpected construction.
Hood-like accessories and other practical-looking elements were moved into new contexts, while technical fabrics appeared alongside more traditional clothing shapes. The result continued Lii's wider interest in combining sportswear influences with precise, sculptural construction.
Even familiar pieces could look slightly displaced once Li changed their proportions, position or styling. That sense of disruption allowed the collection to feel experimental without relying on excessive decoration.
A Big Year for Zane Li
Spring 2027 arrives during a fast rise for Li and Lii. Li studied at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology before launching his label, which has developed a recognisable design language built around colour, sportswear influences and unconventional construction.
Earlier in September, Li received the 2026 Karl Lagerfeld Prize, one of the honours presented as part of the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers. He is also among the designers selected as finalists for the 2026 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund.
His latest collection shows why unusual construction has become such an important part of Lii's identity. The clothes may look as if something has been shifted, stretched or placed where it should not be, but for Spring 2027, that sense of being slightly 'wrong' is exactly the point.
