Zane Li of Lii wins the 2026 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund
The New York designer behind Lii takes home $300,000 and mentoring, capping a year in which he also won the Karl Lagerfeld Prize next to Belgium's Julie Kegels.
Photo: Sergei Starostin / Pexels (Pexels License). Stock photo used for illustration; it is not from the event or brand in this story.
Zane Li, the designer behind the label Lii, has won the 2026 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. The result was announced on the evening of Tuesday 20 October at a dinner at the Crane Club in New York, hosted by Tory Burch, Thom Browne, Chloe Malle and Anna Wintour, according to the CFDA.
Li receives $300,000 plus business mentoring. The two runners-up, Aisling Camps and Emily Dawn Long, each receive $100,000.
Who is Zane Li?
Li was born in Chongqing, studied at FIT and is based in New York, where he designs men's and women's ready-to-wear. WWD describes his brand as exploring the meeting point of sportswear and couture.
It has been a big year for him. Vogue reports that he won the Fashion Trust US Ready-to-Wear Award in April and the Karl Lagerfeld Prize at the LVMH Prize ceremony in Paris in September. That same ceremony had a Belgian winner: Antwerp-based designer Julie Kegels took the main LVMH Prize, LVMH announced.
Speaking to Vogue after the win, Li called it "really surreal" and said that after such a busy year it felt like "a good ending spot".
The runners-up
Vogue describes Camps as a Trinidad-born engineer turned knitwear designer who made her official runway debut at New York Fashion Week in September. Long is known for her "Spoiled Boys" T-shirts, which Vogue says were worn by many young celebrities this summer.
Why it matters
The fund was set up after the 11 September 2001 attacks to support young American designers. According to WWD, it has mentored 200 designers and given more than $8.2 million in support, with past names including Proenza Schouler and Bode. Prizes like this often mark the labels that end up in the best boutiques a few seasons later, so Lii is a name worth remembering.
Source
Original reporting: Vogue.
Also reported by: CFDA, WWD, LVMH.
This is a short summary in our own words. Names and facts are as reported by the sources above; Wardrobe Compass has no commercial relationship with the brands mentioned.
