Claudia Li: the fashion risk-taker who counts Bella Hadid as a fan
With NYFW in full swing, Li tells how she spurned the chance to join the family’s art dealership in favour of studying the design business and starting her own brand in an uber competitive field
Risk is an essential component for success. Indeed, the risk to do something different, to put oneself out there and show one’s passions to an audience can be a daunting endeavour. But without at least the attempt, one’s inner progress can stagnate. This is what led Claudia Li to launch her own eponymous ready-to-wear line in 2015, amid a dense marketplace that has myriad labels all vying for the hard-earned dollars of consumers.
“I wanted to build something of my own and challenge myself to start a business where I could still express myself as an artist,” she said about starting her brand. “And although it was one of the hardest decisions I ever made in my life, I’ve never looked back.”
Now, three years after taking that risk, Li, 30, is about to present her eighth show at New York Fashion Week. The large-scale industry event, which kicks off fashion month, is where careers can be made or broken based on the strength a collection. It’s a challenging environment any for brand, especially for budding ones like Claudia Li. But with the momentum she’s got going for her, this season could prove to be her most successful yet.
Born in China and raised in Singapore and New Zealand, Li grew up immersed in the arts. Her father is an art dealer and her mother was an opera singer. And for a time, it looked as if she would follow down the former’s path. At 18, she went to school in Beijing to study painting and was later asked to join the family business, owning to the fact that going down that road would be much easier for her. “But that is not what I wanted for my own life,” she explained. “I’ve never settled for comfortable.”
She enrolled in Central Saint Martins in London to study fashion design, believing that she had found her calling, and continued her education at the Parsons School of Design in New York, where she received her MFA in fashion design. She would later join Brandon Maxwell, who was then Lady Gaga’s stylist, at the Haus of Gaga, before taking a position in the womenswear design team at JW Anderson.
Li was finally a part of the industry she loved, working for some of its biggest names, but there was something in her that wanted more. She wanted to open herself up and explore the possibility of creating her own company. So, with the experience that she accrued, and with the backing of her family, she set out to make her mark in New York.