The Emerging Designer Whose Sculptural Looks Are Already All Over Red Carpets

"I thought it was a scam," designer Kuai Li recalls of the DM she received from Kylie Jenner's stylist, Mackenzie Grandquist, in 2023. In her defense, most people in her position probably would, too. At the time, Li was a first-year graduate student pursuing an MFA in fashion design, with little experience and limited industry attention. The odds of Jenner's stylist coming across her work? It was too good to be true, she thought. But before deleting the message, Li did some research. "It turned