Claudia Li just returned home to New Zealand for the first time in 13 years—small surprise that her latest offering for Pre-Fall drew directly from her childhood memories. Specifically, Li played off the vegetable block-print paintings she created in kindergarten, a practice that will be familiar to many but held special formational significance to Li and her family of artists.
Yes, those abstract red and white circles and squares are a reference to the potato, cut in half and dipped in ink to create a geometric print. Li splashed it on long pleated skirts and sheath dresses with a little tie-on apron to suggest an artist’s smock. Smocking of the technical sort appeared diagonally across the front of a comfy sack dress that concealed a clever pocket inside of a cut-out, and there were several strong collared shirts with corset-like boning to create structure.
Once more, Li revisited the sportswear references from the past two seasons: coatdresses cinched with paracord and lots of waterproof items. One standout was a long black nylon slip of a dress with an intricately woven black-and-white paracord belt. The fabric contained a hidden print, near invisible to the naked eye. When doused with water (or rain), a fall of hand-drawn umbrellas slowly comes into view. A neat trick that Li cleverly worked into raincoats, as well.
