Behind The Brand | 3.1 Phillip Lim

After Lim graduated he took up a retail job at Barneys in Beverly Hills. Whilst unpacking some boxes in the storeroom he came across some pieces from from a young, Iranian-American

fashion designer called Katayone Adeli. Lim immediately identified with the minimalist aesthetic of the brand and promptly contacted them to try and secure an internship as a design assistant. Despite not knowing what a portfolio was, he got himself an internship and eventually, through his innate talent and tenacity, earned a permanent position in her design team. Unfortunately, his role at Katayone Adeli would come to an end as Adeli wanted to move her business to New York and Lim wanted to remain in California to stay close to his family.

With Lim committing to stay in California, he found a role for himself with the fashion label Development and in 2000, Lim launched his first ever collection with them. His collection was sold under the “Development” brand name and featured modern fashion pieces for women. However, after four years Lim would eventually later part ways with Development due to creative differences.

Despite the fact that his business relationship with Development had ended, Lim remained close with an old fabric supplier to the brand called Wen Zhou. Lim shared his dreams of creating a clothing collection for the high fashion market but expressed doubts about whether or not he could do it. Zhou truly believed in her friend and encouraged him to move to New York with her to create a fashion label together.

“We received our first order and it was a quarter of a million dollars for our first season, for a bunch of kids that knew nothing. We called our company 3.1 Phillip Lim because Phillip didn’t want to use his name. I told him to use his name, and then we were both 31 and so we said we’re going with 3.1 Phillip Lim because 31 sounded really old at that time.” – Wen Zhou, Forbes, 2020.