Yang Li is a Chinese fashion designer based in London. He currently is the

creative director A creative director is a person who makes high-level creative decisions; oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos; and directs and translates the creative people who produce the end results. Creat ...

of Shang Xia.

Early life

Li was born and lived in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, until moving to

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

at age 10. Li spent his isolated teenage years playing basketball and

skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport that involves riding and Skateboarding trick, performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a method of tr ...

, two sports whose style and expression through clothing were his first introduction to fashion. Music has been the most profound obsession of Yang Li numerous collaborations have resulted and Li has led the way in championing underground and cult artists.

Career

Li dabbled in music and briefly studied law to please his parents, but ultimately decided to pursue fashion. Upon receiving a scholarship to

Central Saint Martins Central Saint Martins is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art university in London, England. The college offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of short ...

in 2007, Li moved to London to study fashion. After an internship under English designer

Gareth Pugh Gareth Pugh (born 31 August 1981) is an English fashion designer"Gareth Pugh: Fashion Designer."

, Li withdrew from the institution and moved to Belgium to intern under fashion designer

Raf Simons Raf Jan Simons (; born 12 January 1968) is a Belgian fashion designer. Beginning in furniture design, Simons launched his own menswear label in 1995. He was creative director at Jil Sander (2005–2012), Christian Dior (2012–2015), and Calvin Kl ...

. Following his experience described as "working in a creative kitchen", he launched his eponymous label in 2010. Li's first collection "Zero Hour", released in 2010, was shown through a short film in collaboration with filmmaker and photographer Scott Trindle, in which articles of clothing were cut and repaired in varying degrees, which he saw as an act of "subtle rebellion". He proceeded to release three more collections before his Fall/Winter 2013 Paris debut women's collection, a show dubbed "phenomenal" by ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** '' Vogue Adria'', a fashion magazine for former Yugoslav countries ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ' ...

''. In 2014, he was shortlisted for the

LVMH LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE (), commonly known as LVMH, is a French multinational holding company and conglomerate that specializes in luxury goods and has its headquarters in Paris, France. The company was formed in 1987 through the ...

prize. CLCC SA, a Luxembourg fashion fund who had also funded

, made investments in Yang Li in 2015. Li debuted his menswear line in January 2016 for Paris Fashion Week. In 2017, he launched his collaboration label SAMIZDAT. Li is known for working with underground and cult musicians. For Li's Spring/Summer 2018 collection, the designer partnered with American singer-songwriter

Michael Gira Michael Rolfe Gira (; born February 19, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, author and artist. Now based in New Mexico, he founded the band Swans, in which he sings and plays guitar, in New York City in the 1980s at the height of ...

for a live performance to accompany his runway show at

Palais de Tokyo The Palais de Tokyo (''Tokyo Palace'') is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, facing the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs to ...

in Paris. Other music collaborations include

Blixa Bargeld Blixa Bargeld (born 12 January 1959) is a German musician who has been the lead singer of the band Einstürzende Neubauten since its formation in 1980. Bargeld was also a founding member of the Australian rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, s ...

Einstürzende Neubauten (, 'Collapsing New Buildings') is a German experimental music group, formed in West Berlin in 1980. The band currently comprises founding members Blixa Bargeld (lead vocals, guitar, keyboard) and N.U. Unruh (custom-made instruments, percussion, ...

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are a Rock music, rock band formed in Melbourne in 1983 by lead vocalist Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and German guitarist-vocalist Blixa Bargeld. The band has featured international personnel throug ...

Justin Broadrick Justin Karl Michael Broadrick (born 15 August 1969) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lead singer and a founding member of the band Godflesh, one of the first bands to combine elements of extreme metal and i ...

Keiji Haino Keiji Haino ( ''Haino Keiji''; born May 3, 1952) is a Japanese musician and singer-songwriter whose work has included rock, free improvisation, noise music, percussion, psychedelic music, minimalism and drone music. He has been active since th ...

Jehnny Beth Jehnny Beth (born Camille Berthomier, 24 December 1984) is a French musician and actress originally from Poitiers and based in London, England since 2006. She came to notability within Europe as one half of the indie rock duo John & Jehn, and ...

, Genesis Porridge,

Psychic TV Psychic TV (aka PTV or Psychick TV or several other aliases) were an English experimental music, experimental video art and music collective, formed by performance artist Genesis P-Orridge and Scottish musician Alex Fergusson (musician), Alex ...

Ramleh Ramla (), also known as Ramle (, ), is a city in the Central District of Israel. Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with significant numbers of both Jews and Arabs. The city was founded in the early 8th century CE by the Umayyad caliph Sul ...

KK Null , known by his stage name KK Null, is a Japanese experimental multi-instrumentalist active since the early 1980s. He began as a guitarist but learned how to compose, sing, play drums, and create electronic music. He also studied Butoh dance at M ...

, and

Pharmakon In critical theory, pharmakon is a concept introduced by Jacques Derrida. It is derived from the Greek source term φάρμακον (''phármakon''), a word that can mean either remedy, poison, or scapegoat. In his essay "Plato's Pharmacy", Der ...

Automatic show

In 2018 Li debuted the "automatic show", ceding control of the FW19 visual presentation to his models. Li invited friends of the likes of Stoya,

Asia Argento Asia Argento (; born Aria Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento; 20 September 1975) is an Italian actress and filmmaker. The daughter of filmmaker Dario Argento, she has had roles in several of her father's features and achieved mainstream success with ...

, Ali Michael,

Ruby Aldridge Ruby Rose Aldridge (born August 26, 1991) is an American fashion model and singer. During the years of 2008 - 2012, Ruby Aldridge was the "face" of brands such as Coach, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Valentino, and Calvin Klein. During the 2011 fall fas ...

Lily McMenamy Lily Camille McMenamy (born 3 April 1994) is an American-born English model and actress. Early life McMenamy was born in Pennsylvania. Her mother, Kristen McMenamy, was one of the world's top models during the 1990s. Her father, Hubert Bouko ...

, Gaia Orgeas, Savages frontwoman

Rossy de Palma Rosa Elena García Echave (born 16 September 1964), known professionally as Rossy de Palma, is a Spanish actress and model. She is well known for her roles in films by Pedro Almodóvar such as ''Law of Desire'', ''Women on the Verge of a Nervou ...

, Irina Shnitman, Sasha Melnychuk, Ellie Grace Cumming and

Genesis P-Orridge Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (born Neil Andrew Megson; 22 February 1950 – 14 March 2020) was an English singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, visual artist, and occultist who rose to notoriety as the founder of the COUM Transmi ...

to communicate the collection in their own way, began simultaneously posting selfies on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

from 10 different cities garbed in various looks of Li’s AW19 collection, all combined it was the whole of the collection. “Automatic Show” was a

selfie A selfie () is a self-portrait photograph or a short video, typically taken with an electronic camera or smartphone. The camera would be usually held at arm's length or supported by a selfie stick instead of being controlled with a self-timer ...

salvo that relied completely on the participation of its models, Of course skirting convention runs the risk of going all but unnoticed; that didn’t happen, it created an instant viral digital fashion show Li says that he was inspired by the disjointed prose of American writer

William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major Postmodern literature, postmodern author who influen ...

, who was known for championing an unconscious and "automatic" style of writing in his work. resulting in the following YANG LI AUTOMATIC MANIFESTO Li said: The show was critically acclaimed and received overwhelming attention across the industry
models.com
citing it as one of the coolest show of the season The following year in 2019, Li extended his exploration of formats with a 3D virtual meets live show in collaboration with

The Jesus and Mary Chain The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid, who are the two founders and only consistent members of the ...

. Yang Li presented his collection titled Greatest Hits: Automatic Show II at La Gaîté Lyrique. The show was a part concert, part visual experience through the digital projections which featured a 3D scanned version of Ruby Aldridge and Wolf Gillespie who modelled the collection in a virtual video game like environment, mirrored in a 360 view across the venue in collaboration with SHOWstudio and AGUSTA YR, the show also featured a live performance by

. Li's work has attracted a number of highly influential stockists, including

SSENSE SSENSE ( pronounced: "essence") is a Canadian multi-brand retailer headquartered in Montreal, Canada specializing in the sale of designer fashion and high end streetwear. It was founded as an e-commerce platform in 2003 by three brothers: Rami, ...

Farfetch Farfetch is a British e-commerce company focused on luxury clothing and beauty products. It operates as a digital marketplace that sells products from several hundred brands, boutiques and department stores from around the world. In January 2024 ...

Dover Street Market Dover Street Market is a multi-brand retailer originally located on Dover Street, in Mayfair, London. It has stores in New York City, Tokyo, Singapore, Paris, Beijing and Los Angeles. Dover Street Market was created by Rei Kawakubo of Japanese ...

, and LUISAVIAROMA.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yang, Li Living people 1987 births