For Zhuoran Li, the body is a blank canvas

The designer’s personal experience was the base for her collection. After going through leg surgery at the age of 12, Li struggled to face the emotions inside her when others looked at her pitifully because of her slow-paced walk. Now, through her work, she is determined to use those emotions to potentially help people going through a similar situation. “I want to open myself up, talk about it and challenge it,” she says. “It can make a change someday.”

Fashion design wasn’t Zhuoran Li’s first career option. Inspired by her dad, a Chinese calligraphy teacher, she realised at an early age that she wanted to become an artist. Her passion for painting – a less traditional discipline – allowed her to communicate and express herself. At 18, after discarding architecture, she decided to start a BA in knitwear design at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology. In her work, Li now blends both disciplines, creating a dialogue between painting and fashion design that has become part of her personal and design DNA.

 “I forget about the rules that my teachers told me to follow when I draw, I only follow my emotions.”

For her thesis collection, she treated her body as a blank canvas. She covered herself in paint to trace the body marks that had previously been hidden and then translated them to the swatches. In a disruptive attempt of self-expression, the whole design process is infused by emotion, the central axis of Li’s work. “I forget about the rules that my teachers told me to follow when I draw, I only follow my emotions,” she says.

Speaking out loud still represents a kind of barrier to Li. This is why she lets her contrasting colour palette of black and primary colours – such as blue, red, yellow – become symbols of her ‘writing’, expressing her feeling in her garments. The collection is also influenced by the cubist paintings of artists like Pablo Picasso. She uses those geometric shapes to describe body parts, challenging the development of silhouettes with the most basic elements in an artwork. The softness and texture of the knit represent the intimate relationship between the body and geometry.

Speaking out loud still represents a kind of barrier to Li. This is why she lets her contrasting colour palette of black and primary colours – such as blue, red, yellow – become symbols of her ‘writing’, expressing her feeling in her garments. The collection is also influenced by the cubist paintings of artists like Pablo Picasso. She uses those geometric shapes to describe body parts, challenging the development of silhouettes with the most basic elements in an artwork. The softness and texture of the knit represent the intimate relationship between the body and geometry.

As with most artists, the pandemic and lockdown have deeply changed Li’s perception of what her work should be like. In an era of self-reflection and reset, she has left behind the days of complex techniques to incorporate more basic elements to her designs. “COVID-19 has definitely simplified my design language,” she says.

“What you feel when you’re looking at a screen is very different to what you feel when you see a garment in real life.”

With all physical fashion shows being cancelled, Li was forced to present her work in a digital format. Now that a few months have passed since then, she is less emotional about this disappointment. “Maybe it’s time for us to find different ways to show our work, but the most challenging part is knowing how to do so through the internet,” she says. “What you feel when you’re looking at a screen is very different to what you feel when you see a garment in real life.”

Zhuoran believes humour can be key to attract an audience, especially the younger generations such as Gen-Z, characterised by very short attention spans. “I’m the kind of audience that doesn’t want to watch an 18-minute video, I’d rather watch a funny short video or some kind of joke,” she says. “I would stick to a maximum of 10 minutes. Nowadays, people’s time is very important, so you are wasting their time with something that takes a long time to watch.”

After seven years of studying, she feels ready to start her working career. With the creation of her own label in mind, either in New York or in China, she wants her voice to be heard. “I would like to have my own space inside the fashion industry,” Li says. A space in the intersection between womenswear and menswear, in an attempt to experiment with unisex clothing. The Chinese designer believes there is a lot to improve in this area. She would like to see more fun and pleasure in men’s knitwear, for example.

“If you have a lot of courage and confidence with your work, you can’t just fade away”

But in a world facing a recession, again, having your own studio is not an easy task. Even working for others has become a struggle for fashion graduates. “A lot of companies have fired a lot of people recently, and many of them have even erased the entire knitwear department,” says Li.

No matter how challenging being a designer might be these days, she refuses to believe that such talented people will just vanish. “If you have a lot of courage and confidence with your work, you can’t just fade away,” she says. Zhuoran Li’s advice is very clear: “Keep researching, keep swimming, and be yourself.”