Out on a Lim
Phillip Lim at his West Hollywood store opening. Photo by John Schulli/Berliner Studio
Fashion designer Phillip Lim, now based in New York but raised in Southern California, is making a special appearance at the Los Angeles Museum of Art on Wednesday, Dec. 2, to talk about his label 3.1 phillip lim and the challenges of creating a line that is a cross between romance and reality.
Lim has become one of fashion's golden boys who can do no wrong. His design roots come from Southern California, where he attended California State University, Long Beach and worked at Barneys New York in Beverly Hills. It was at Barneys that he was struck with the idea of becoming a designer.
Lim's first line, Development, was started in Los Angeles. But he moved on to New York in 2004 where he made headlines a year later when he debuted 3.1 phillip lim at New York Fashion Week. He has won oodles of awards ever since and launched a small retail chain in 2007. His first California store opened in West Hollywood in 2008 at 631 N. Robertson Blvd.
Lim has always said his family's story sounds like something out of the movie "The Killing Fields." He was born in Thailand in 1973 to Chinese immigrants who then moved to Cambodia. They escaped the Cambodian civil war, eventually relocating to Westminster, Calif. His mother worked as a seamstress and his father was a professional poker player. Lim has always been a bit of a gambler himself, betting on his own design smarts that try to incorporate beautiful clothes with a certain air of madness.
The LACMA event at 11 a.m. is being organized by the museum's Costume Council. The event is open to the public. To RSVP, call Amber Smith at (323) 857-6555.
