COMING HOME

hen you meet designer Claudia Li, the sharp craftsmanship, voluminous silhouettes, and cute design quirks of her eponymous label all of a sudden seem to make sense. The pint-sized powerhouse is a force to be reckoned with. With her pink hair and colour-coordinated Care Bears phone case it’s easy to see how her outward strength and resilience has enabled her label to thrive during this challenging time. The 32-year-old, Chinese-born, New Zealand-raised designer recently returned home to Aotearoa after fifteen years overseas—the majority of which was spent in New York. Li escaped just before the Covid-19 pandemic caused the