Stay Healthy, Avoid Fashion: Xiao Li A/W 2015-16

It is always a pleasure to follow the career of young designers who were originally featured on this site and see how well they are doing. Three years have gone since China-born but London-based Xiao Li won the "Feel the Yarn" competition with designs made combining recycled denim yarns by Pinori Filati with her own fabric, a soft silicone-based material.

In 2013 the London College of Fashion graduate completed her MA in Womenswear Knitwear at the Royal College of Art and went on to win the Diesel Award at the Trieste-based International Talent Support (ITS) competition with a collection featuring voluminously ample knitwear garments in the pastel shades of Michele De Lucchi's Girmi prototypes with bell-shaped sleeves and silicone decorations.

Xiao Li is currently among the finalists of the LMVH 2015 Prize and her international stockists include Opening Ceremony and 10 Corso Como (but to think that only two years ago some buyers emailed us to ask how to get in touch with her…time really goes fast).

Yesterday during London Fashion Week, Xiao Li showcased her A/W 2015-16 collection at the Freemasons' Hall as part of Fashion Scout.

In previous interviews with this site, the designer defined her creations as modern, fresh and unexpected with a futuristic feel about them.

Her description perfectly applies to this collection, that is also characterised by a very ironic twist.

The designer moved from '60s street style, but she had in mind two main themes – mass consumerism/fast fashion and genetically modified foods (the latter actually goes pretty well with the "Feed the Planet" theme of the Expo 2015), things that have prompted us to forget beautifully crafted garments and a healthy diet.

Combining her penchant for oversized silhouettes, new innovative techniques and traditional knits, Xiao Li came up with two different kind of garments: pieces characterised by three-dimensional knitted graphics and trompe l'oeil flat garments that could be described as classic Roberta di Camerino meets Comme des Garçons' A/W 2012 (flat) collection.

The result in some cases verged towards Pop Art and in particular towards Claes Oldenburg's witty representations of everyday objects.

A biker jacket was turned into a sleeveless intarsia top; a giant perfume bottle became a skirt (yes we have seen perfume bottles appearing as digital prints in Mary Katrantzou's A/W 2009 collection, but this seemed quite different); a trench coat à la Gaultier was reinvented as a knitted maxi-dress; over-lays of wool structures gave form and shape to the garments while silicone accessories added another texture to the collection.

There was also something else in this unisex collection – technology and science. The letters "GMO" standing for "Genetically Modified Organism" (and pointing at "genetically modified" or rather "multiplied" fashion designs, constantly copied, pilfered and replicated by fast fashion retailers) were turned into "OMG!" (Oh My God!), one of our collective and favourite exclamations on the social media; intarsia bottles of fragrance posed the question "Can science make a better perfume?", while "the cloud" – icon of personal mobility hinting at cloud computing, storage and apps – became a cute symbol with a threatening message "Avoid Fashion".

The best thing about the collection was indeed the final message: Xiao Li turned Steve Jobs' "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" motto into a very personal "Stay Healthy, Avoid Fashion", that appeared scattered all over the pieces, including the fastenings of winter coats and jackets. And while you could argue this was a fun and ironic message from Xiao Li to consumers, suggesting them to avoid fast fashion, it seems to be also the perfect slogan for thousands of people working in the industry, including not just unpaid interns and critics/journalists trapped in the perpetually revolving wheel of fashion weeks, but also young designers like her, too often caught up in the relentless rhythms of an industry that sadly never stops to marvel, smile and laugh at the world we live in.