Third prize in one year: Zane Li wins the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund
The Chongqing-born, New York-based designer and his label Lii receive 300,000 dollars and mentorship. Li had already won the Karl Lagerfeld Prize at the LVMH Prize this year.
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Designer Zane Li has won the 2026 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. The decision was announced on Tuesday, 20 October, at a dinner at The Crane Club in New York, hosted by Tory Burch, CFDA chairman Thom Browne, Vogue's head of editorial content Chloe Malle and Anna Wintour, among others. Li receives 300,000 dollars plus mentorship from established industry professionals. He was born in Chongqing, is based in New York and graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology. He launched his womenswear label Lii in 2024.
It is already Li's third major cash prize this year, following the Fashion Trust U.S. awards in April and the Karl Lagerfeld Prize at the LVMH Prize in Paris. The two runners-up receive 100,000 dollars each: Emily Dawn Long, known for her “Spoiled Boys” T-shirts, and Aisling Camps, a Trinidadian-born engineer turned knitwear designer who made her official runway debut at New York Fashion Week in September. Li described the business side of running a label as one of the hardest parts.
The fund was set up after the attacks of 11 September 2001 to support emerging American designers. It has so far backed around 200 designers with more than 8.2 million dollars; alumni include Proenza Schouler, Bode and Altuzarra. This year also featured a material innovation challenge with animal protection group Humane World for Animals, in which the finalists explored bio-based textiles. Thom Browne said the fund is a reminder of the need to champion “original voices and true creativity.”