LI-NING Autumn/Winter 2020 30th Anniversary Collection Future-Vintage, Sport-Formal

Our thoughts and prayers are with China at this moment and all those affected by the Coronavirus epidemic, just when Chinese nationals around the world should be celebrating the Lunar New Year.

On the global political and economic stage, China has in recent years risen as a super-power, yet coupled with the ongoing trade war imposed by the US, this crisis is putting tremendous added pressure on the country, forcing it to take unprecedented drastic measures while putting its economy at risk.

As we have come to recognise in the fashion and food industry, transparency is key.  China's president Xi Jinping warned this week, "The epidemic is a devil.  We cannot let the devil hide." This virus does not have any borders and amidst all the alarm and panic, the world needs to collaborate  to take it on, find a vaccine and work together to stop the epidemic.
We wish China and everyone in the world good luck as we usher in the year of the Rat.

Meanwhile, the rise of the status of China as a fashion power may be represented by the rise of the Chinese fashion brand LI-NING, which celebrates its 30^th Anniversary this year with the staging of its Autumn-Winter 2020 collection: Future-Vintage, Sport-Formal earlier this month (18th January 2020) in Paris, at the Pompidou Centre.

Li-Ning has come a long way since the days when it was very much another sportswear brand.  
But look at it now.
Founded by the country’s sport icon of athletics and Olympic gold medallist, Li Ning, the brand is now incorporating street fashion and tailoring, creating a hybrid sports-inspired look with multiple reference points.  And has accumulated a global following to boost.

(L-R) Founder Li Ning, with mega fans Jackie Chan, Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade at the Li-Ning Menswear Fall/Winter 2020-2021 show, Paris Fashion Week January 18, 2020. 
(Photo by Francois Durand/Getty Images)

The collection originates in an image of Mr. Li, the brand’s founder and an Olympic gold medallist in his own right, wearing a suit, seen above with his fervent fans.

The vision of a champion athlete in relaxed tailoring inspires Li-Ning’s approach: applying techniques of classical tailoring to iconic, sport-derived styles, seen through an aesthetic lens of future-past. This range of apparel, footwear, and accessories is a product of Li-Ning’s three-decades-long quest to define a wardrobe for tomorrow.
The brand’s 30th anniversary sets into motion a far-reaching series of new collaborations and associations within the worlds of fashion and contemporary art, the latter of which is represented in Li-Ning’s three-year patronage, beginning in January 2020, of Paris’ renowned cultural institution -  the Centre Pompidou.

With a focus on live performance, the programme seeks to crystallize the partners’ shared belief in the unifying nature of experience and the power of art in creating exchange.

 Li-Ning’s Autumn/Winter 2020 show inaugurates the partnership, utilizing the venue’s sprawling galleries to reveal this special anniversary collection.

For the show, Li-Ning creates the effect of a shifting 3-D urban landscape with the Pompidou Centre illuminated in a matrix-like grid constructed of scaffolding, neon, pixelated LED screens, and monitors displaying 8-bit content reminiscent of ’80s video games along side various vintage video footage. The games and videos play, glitch, and “break down” then loop again, highlighting the season’s innate clash between lo-fi and hi-fi.  Models walked the Pompidou to a roughly collaged soundtrack that flickered between underground dance music, new wave hits, and ambient sounds of city bustling streets. 

Quickly expanding the brand's growing world of associates, founder Li-Ning arrived in Paris having just launched collaborations with the menswear designer Neil Barrett, at Milan Men’s Fashion Week, and Stefano Pilati’s Random Identities, at Pitti Uomo.

The Paris show opened with a preview of yet another partnership: a design collaboration with the iconic martial artist and actor Jackie Chan. The 10-look collection featureed futuristic black-and-white looks that combine Kung-Fu–inspired design elements with utility and military surplus.


(Photos by Francois Durand/Kristy Sparow/Getty Images)