After a three-year hiatus, the New York Fashion Week stalwart is set to make a return - this time on home soil at New Zealand Fashion Week.
There’s one name on the upcoming New Zealand Fashion Week schedule that people in the know are extremely excited about – Claudia Li.
Her clothes have been worn by Lady Gaga, Bella Hadid, Julia Stiles, Venus Williams and Michelle Obama, and her past collections – shown at New York Fashion Week up until 2021 – feature on Vogue Runway. It’s an impressive one-line resume for the Chinese New Zealander designer who’s spent most of her fashion career abroad.
The Covid pandemic brought her home to New Zealand in 2020 and like many others over this period she used it as a time for reflection. Li was feeling burnout from the never-ending cycle of producing fashion collections and questioning the mass production of the fashion industry on a global scale.
“I was doing four collections a year, and at some point I had to stop and ask – why? Why are we making this much? Creatively, it didn’t make sense anymore. It wasn’t sustainable – not for the planet, not for my mental health, not for anyone involved. I just couldn’t keep going at that pace.”
So, Li took a three-year break and over that time she has been working on what she describes as a very intentional collection that she will be releasing on the runway in Auckland’s Shed 10 at New Zealand Fashion Week on Wednesday, August 27.
“I’ve always followed my instincts and stayed open to where things take me – I don’t like to force anything. This time was no different. I’d been slowly building this collection during my break, and when the opportunity came up, it just felt right. The timing made sense, and I was ready,” she explains.
Li is a big believer that if you are open about things, good things will come your way and taking this approach throughout her career has led to some fortuitous stepping stones for the hard-working talented designer.
While she was studying fashion design at Central Saint Martins, her pattern-cutting tutor and mentor, Patrick Lee Yow, told her about a new master’s programme at Parsons, New York and recommended she apply.
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Haus of Gaga
Her 2012 graduation collection, released in 2013 at Parsons, caught the attention of Lady Gaga’s studio, which reached out wanting to borrow one of the looks for Gaga to wear. As a student, Li couldn’t afford to send such a huge garment by courier, so she delivered it herself, travelling by foot and subway. As she waited in reception, she overhead that Haus of Gaga was looking for assistants. Li thought, “why not”, applied and got the job and worked at Haus of Gaga for two years.
“It was my first job out of school, and it wasn’t exactly a traditional fashion design job, but it was wildly creative. I learned so much. It was chaotic but in the best way, definitely one of the most fun jobs I’ve ever had,” says Li.
While she was working at Haus of Gaga she received an email from British designer Jonathan Anderson (recently appointed creative director of Christian Dior women’s, men’s and haute couture). LVMH had just invested in his company, they were expanding and looking for a womenswear designer. Initially, Anderson asked Li to do some design projects which led to a job offer. So, Li packed her bags and moved back to London where she worked as a womenswear designer at JW Anderson. During this period she was in a difficult place mentally and eventually returned to New York.
“A lot of people didn’t understand why I would walk away from such a promising job – they thought I was being young or reckless. But I actually left because I was going through serious depression. Unless you’ve experienced something like that yourself, it’s hard to truly get it,” she says.
Back in New York she took a year off to take care of her mental health before feeling ready to launch her own label in 2015. Li and her small team worked from her apartment, and it took two years (four collections) at New York Fashion Week before she got her first article in US Vogue. Her collections from Fall 2018 to Spring 2021 ready-to-wear feature on Vogue Runway and she’s happy with them all bar one. “I named a skirt after it. “Just Another Pleated Skirt”, because it’s not, it’s knitted.”
Celebrity moments
Not only did Lady Gaga wear her ginormous graduation outfit but she’s worn Claudia Li many times since, including the time Gaga met His Holiness the Dalai Lama. “It was wild because I was reading a book by the Dalai Lama at the time, and then my publicist texted me saying, ‘OMG, look at this!’ That was a really cool moment.”
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The jacket she made for Michelle Obama was a custom piece and the atelier was provided a mannequin with Obama’s exact measurements. It’s now one of Li’s permanent styles and called the Michelle Pintuck jacket. However, seeing people in her clothes, not just celebrities, is what makes Li most happy.
Turning up the volume
Li was an avid painter before deciding to train in fashion. On her mother’s side everyone painted or played a musical instrument while her father is an art dealer. She grew up going to gallery openings and observing her mother saving up to buy quality garments and the ritual of dressing up. Her grandmother was an extremely good sewer and used to make clothes that Li designed for her Barbie, which Li muses was probably the first hint that fashion was to become her future career.
Li’s design aesthetic is angular and sculptural, and she’s known for her innovative use of textiles and silhouettes. “When I painted, it was always about shapes, bold colours, and texture. I was really into mixed media. I love David Hockney and Matisse – I’m not sure if that shows in my work, but those were my references. In fashion school, my favourite thing was draping. For my graduation [from Parsons], I needed a lot of space because I was working with these giant felt pieces. There was a lot of craft involved too – I stitched tens of thousands of yarns into the felt and hand-painted them. The pieces were massive, and the garments were humongous.
“A lot of people have described my work as architectural, which I take as a compliment,” says Li. “But to me, it’s more about shapes and volume – I don’t really think of it as architectural. That said, I do love architecture … and I did marry an architect, so maybe it’s rubbed off a little.”
Ten years ago, she unexpectedly met her husband, Jae, through friends which was the last thing she expected and proved it is possible to meet a good man in New York.
Pre-Covid, they attended a friend’s wedding in New Zealand and Jae, who loves the outdoors, hiking and nature, said ‘I’d like to live here one day’. That moment came in 2020. Life in New York during the pandemic was grim and one day when Li came home from her studio Jae said, ‘Can we move back to New Zealand?’. Already a global citizen, Li thought why not. She was raised in Singapore and New Zealand before moving from Tāmaki Makaurau to study fashion in London age 17, then New York, moving back to London, then back to New York. This is a beautiful second New Zealand chapter and she doesn’t have plans to leave anytime soon.
Less is more
It’s also her opportunity to present a different fashion story. One that she calls a “slow fashion movement”, that’s steeped in sustainability, craft and one collection. “It’s more intentional and at a much slower pace,” says Li.
She’s spent time looking for materials and going through her archive of patterns to see what she’s done so far and getting to the essence of the brand.
Meanwhile, Li and her team in New York have continued to produce staple Claudia Li pieces like her infamous 3D knit “Just Another Pleated Skirt”, and if you visit The Shelter in Auckland, you might get lucky finding an archive piece for sale, if Li can let it go.
She continues to work with her New York-based pattern maker and sewers and sourcing fabrics from small family-run fabric mills in Italy, France and Spain, as well as deadstock Japanese fabrics. Production runs of her garments remain small and are produced in New York and Italy and she’s just started working with manufacturers in Wellington and Auckland.
“I feel that supporting smaller businesses – most of the time family-run – is more sustainable. That’s how things used to be, but a lot of people have forgotten that. For me, relationships and partnerships are everything because it’s about helping each other grow and thrive.”
Li hopes that independent labels like hers will play a role in helping shift the industry towards a more sustainable future and just “make less”.
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