Meet the designer who has created an amazing fall collection of high-neck pieces, culottes, geometric pattern, sheer and colour-blocking details.  Having worked as an IT professional for almost 10 years, Hong Kong’s Kay Li decided to pursue her dream of studying fashion design in ESMOD Dubai, before eventually setting up her own label in Dubai.

Unlike most fresh graduates from fashion design, Li did not go job hunting after spending three years studying fashion design and pattern-making.  Instead, she set up her eponymous label Kay Li in 2012 soon after graduating “It is after all my dream,” she says. “It just doesn't feel right after all the time and hard work I spent in university, if I ended up working for someone else, fulfilling someone's dream.” While it has been a process of trial and error in the past few years, but Li says she was determined to learn about the nitty gritty parts of the business.

 

Li’s collections are designed and manufactured in cosmopolitan Dubai, where she says women are eager to try new designs and are extremely stylish. She attends fabric shows several times each year to source fabrics from Japan, Spain and Italy. She also schedules sourcing trips while on holiday to find unique fabrics to include in her collections. 

                                   

Her passion for experimenting innovative techniques, such as digital printing and laser cutting, in her collections has earned her recognition from leading designer platform Not Just A Label. Li was named one of the best 100 designers, chosen from a pool of more than 20,000 talents from around the world, and was sent to a trade show in Vicenza, Italy to present her work. The 100 designers chosen ranged from clothing to jewellery and leather accessory designers. Some of Italy’s leading manufacturers were invited to the three-day trade show, which also featured seminars by prestigious guest speakers from Vogue Italia and PR Mogul Kelly Cutrone, as well as networking opportunities and sharing sessions.

 

The essence of Kay Li is to create a line of functional clothing with a clean and uncluttered aesthetic for busy urban women.  Li says that her lifelong inspiration comes from independent women around her. “When I design, I often think about my friends in Hong Kong, the girls who I grew up with. They are now mums holding important positions in firms or ladies who travel around the world for business and leisure. They are the essence of a ‘Kay Li’ woman – smart, confident and most of all stylish. They dress in a truly unique way that accentuates who they are.”

 

Apart from close friends, Li says most of her inspiration comes from personal experience, and she rarely follows mainstream trends. Her AW16 collection, for instance, was inspired by an exceptionally beautiful sunset she saw in Dubai earlier this year. “While admiring the cotton candy-like sky, I couldn't help but notice a construction crane popping up in the horizon. The geometric pattern in the collection was the result of the rigid lines of the crane juxtaposed against the soft pastel colour, which mimics the colour palette of the sky. This echoes with the bamboo scaffolding I grew up with in Hong Kong. The design and techniques of these scaffolding is a form of art in itself.”

 

Li’s sentiment reflects a strong affinity to Hong Kong, where the designer hopes to find new stockists. “Hong Kong is an important gateway to China and many other parts of Asia,” she says. “The government has been putting great effort in supporting the local fashion industry over the years. But personally, the main reason I would love my label to have a greater presence in Hong Kong is because this is my home, and I want to present my work in the city I love most. The city has shaped me into who I am today.”