Lii Fall 2026: The Alien ‘Under the Skin’
A late addition to the CFDA calendar, Zane Li was a welcome surprise, especially after his spring runway debut proved he could potentially join a new vanguard of designers — Henry Zankov and Colleen Allen among them — pushing American fashion forward.
A Chinese native with a studio in Chinatown, the 2026 LVMH Prize semifinalist decamps to Paris, where he presents menswear. And while we’d like to keep him on this side of the Atlantic, the dearth of buyers in New York means that isn’t possible for his fledgling brand. “I cannot sell clothes here,” he stated plainly before Sunday’s show.
Nevertheless, Li’s peripatetic lifestyle — traveling here and there with pit stops at home in Chongqing — stirred him creatively. “I’m constantly in transportation and, especially in cars, I’m just sitting there with this feeling of urban isolation,” he said.
Luckily, Li found a kindred spirit in Scarlett Johansson’s character in “Under the Skin,” a sci-fi horror flick about an alien that disguises itself as a human woman to seduce and eat men. If the plot sounds morbid, Li harnessed it into subtle distortions of female correctness, growing more incorrect with each exit. “She’s hiding something and I think that’s what I’m always attracted to.”
Cut to the opening black track jacket, unzipped slightly to expose a bolt of red at the collar. White and navy iterations followed, tucked into miniskirts with extended waistlines in varying color blocks of chartreuse, Martian green and teal. Grounded by custom Nike Air Forces (the sneaker giant is a sponsor), this was a look Li could sell anywhere.
From there, convention gave way to instinct. Faux-fur lapels consumed the bodices of Mod lady jackets, while tabard tops were cut from rectangular panels, creating sloping shoulder lines like a nun’s habit, albeit one that would hardly pass muster at church.
This 2D-to-3D style of patternmaking is Li’s strength and it culminated in dress-cape hybrids made of four squares seamed together with slits for arms. Looking at them tacked to his board backstage, they were difficult to resolve, but in motion, the sum was greater than their parts.
That’s the thing about Li’s work: as “alien” as it first appears, once inhabited by a human, the real-world implications are undeniable. Elements of a wardrobe, whether sport or couture, are stripped to their bare geometry, then built up into exciting shapes meant for pounding city pavements. Some designers have trouble bridging that last part but not Li, saying: “Reality, abstract, reality — it’s always that process.”
