Phillip Lim (born Pheng Lim; September 16, 1973) is an American

fashion designer Fashion design is the Art (skill), art of applied arts, applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction, and natural beauty to clothing and its Fashion accessory, accessories. It is influenced by diverse cultures and different trends and has va ...

. Lim is of Chinese descent whose parents immigrated to the United States from Cambodia during the

Cambodian genocide The Cambodian genocide was the systematic persecution and killing of Cambodian citizens by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Pol Pot. It resulted in the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million people from 1975 to 1979, nearly 25% of Cambodia's populati ...

. Lim co-founded and worked at the Los Angeles-based fashion label Development from 2000 to 2004. In the fall of 2005, he co-founded 3.1 Phillip Lim with friend and business partner Wen Zhou, becoming the company's creative representative. Lim has garnered both critical and commercial success with his eponymous line. The

Council of Fashion Designers of America The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. (CFDA), founded in 1962 by publicist Eleanor Lambert, and headquartered in Manhattan, is a not-for-profit trade association comprising a membership of over 450 American fashion and accessor ...

awarded Lim the 2007 award for Emerging Talent in Womenswear for his work at 3.1 Phillip Lim. In 2012, he was awarded the council's Swarovski award for Menswear.

3.1 Phillip Lim

3.1 Phillip Lim is Lim's

fashion label The term "fashion brand" (or "fashion label") includes all the brands that operate within the fashion industry. A fashion brand combines symbolism, style, and experiential elements, and it needs to differentiate its products and coordinate its supp ...

Collections

For the line's fall 2006 collection, Lim aimed to "inject some 'street elegance' " into his designs. Laird Borrelli of ''Vogue'' praised his work as a "pretty-but-cool clothes" that "don't try too hard". Lim's spring 2007 collection, His first

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

show was praised as "lovely" by Nicole Phelps of ''Vogue'', who said Lim proved himself to be an "accomplished tailor". His clothes were romantic and predominantly white, with occasional navy and floral elements. Phelps noted Lim's "knack for combining the dressy and the casual", saying that "Lim knows how fashionable women want to dress". The line's fall 2007 collection was inspired by socialite

Edith Bouvier Beale Edith Bouvier Beale (November 7, 1917 – January 14, 2002), nicknamed Little Edie, was an American socialite, fashion model, and cabaret performer. She was a first cousin of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Princess Lee Radziwill. She ...

and meant to embody what Lim called "pedigree minus prudence". In what Phelps described as Lim's "most ambitious collection by far", Lim showed prep-school plaids and debutante-inspired dresses. For his Resort 2008 collection, Lim revisited his standby motifs. His fall 2009 was inspired by the youthquake movement of the 1960s in England. Lissie Trullie's band performed live on his runway. His spring 2010 fashion show, held on September 16, 2009, as part of the

New York Fashion Week New York Fashion Week (NYFW), held in February and September of each year, is a semi-annual series of events in Manhattan typically spanning seven to nine days when international Fashion design, fashion collections are shown to buyers, the pres ...

, was very well received, Lauren David Peden of ''Vogue'' reviewing the clothes as "delightfully modern, exceptionally detailed looks", "enhancing a woman’s femininity without getting all girlie-girl saccharine", and Mark Holgate adding that Lim was "able to martial all the salient ideas of the season into brilliantly effortless, and wonderfully special, pieces". The collection was presented again the following day, at an exclusive runway event for American Express cardholders, the designer explaining that his goal was "to provide Cardmembers insight beyond the traditional runway show and offer them a one-of-a-kind experience into the design process". However, during the show one of the models continuously fell down in her stilettos on both of her trips down the runway, and couldn't get up during the finale until another model picked her up and helped her off the runway. The mishap triggered several articles, and Jessica Coen of New York Magazine's ''The Cut'' even stated that "the whole thing was a catastrophe". For its advertisement campaigns, the brand has repeatedly worked with photographer

Viviane Sassen Viviane Sassen (born 1972) is a Dutch artist living in Amsterdam. She is a photographer who works in both the fashion and fine art world. She is known for her use of geometric shapes, often abstractions of bodies. She has been widely published an ...

. It operates stores in

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Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

, and

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

Collaborations

On September 15, 2013, Lim's collaboration with retail chain

Target Target may refer to: Warfare and shooting * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artille ...

debuted to select Target stores in the United States of America, and Canada. The fall collection included both women's and men's apparel and accessories ranging in price from $19.99 to $299.99. Lim initiated a collaboration with scientists, including Charlotte McCurdy, to create fashion accessories and materials from algae and other lab-grown materials. In November 13, 2024, Lim announced that he was stepping down as creative director of 3.1 Phillip Lim.

Personal life

Lim lives in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. His brother is an attorney in

Orange County, California Orange County (officially the County of Orange; often initialized O.C.) is a county (United States), county located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population ...

References

External links