Lii Spring 2027
For Spring 2027, Zane Li looked backwards and forwards at once, combining retro references, technical sportswear and geometric experimentation to make the familiar feel unfamiliar.
Only three years into Lii, Zane Li has already established a recognisable language of vivid colour, avant-garde silhouettes and technical construction. For Spring 2027, he looked back through his young archive, keeping elements that still felt relevant while introducing new ideas. The result was a collection built around the tension between nostalgia and futurism, with commercial pieces repeatedly pushed into more unexpected territory.
Li’s starting point was Brenda Lee’s 1960s ballad “Emotion”, discovered unexpectedly while listening to hardcore techno on NTS Radio. That contrast led him to consider the difference between girlhood and womanhood, and whether emotion requires experience to be authentic. The idea surfaced through playful juxtapositions: stacked square shorts, askew tanks layered over T-shirts and colour-blocked skirts and dresses that distorted otherwise familiar proportions.
Panels and geometric shapes became recurring devices, particularly in vivid gowns with sweeping trains connecting the hem to the back of the bodice. Some of the strongest pieces leaned into the retro-futurist idea more directly, including rectangular open-back aprons layered over bright minidresses. Technical nylon anoraks were transformed into hoods, tube tops and detachable layers, while sewn-together football socks became unusual single-leg tights, extending Lii’s relationship with sportswear.
The collection demonstrated a designer still working out how far his ideas can go while maintaining a functioning wardrobe. There were moments when the geometric language became overly busy, but the underlying instinct remains clear: Li wants to take recognisable clothes and make them strange without making them inaccessible. Spring 2027 found its energy in that tension, turning nostalgia into something more playful, technical and distinctly contemporary.
