An era belonging to New York fashion designers has ended.
According to Fashion Business News, New York fashion brand 3.1 Phillip Lim announced today that Chinese-American designer Phillip Lim will step down as the brand’s creative director. The Spring/Summer 2025 collection and 20th anniversary series he presented at New York Fashion Week in September was his last collection for the brand. The announcement immediately attracted widespread attention from the industry and market.
The statement pointed out that Phillip Lim will continue to pursue new ventures, while Wen Zhou remains the owner of the brand and continues to serve as the CEO of 3.1 Phillip Lim, but did not mention a successor for the creative director.
Born in 1973 to Chinese immigrants in Southern California, Phillip Lim began his career in the fashion industry at Barneys department store, fashion brand Katayone Adeli, and surf brand Development after studying finance at California State University, Long Beach.
In 2005, he and his friend Wen Zhou founded 3.1 Phillip Lim, both at the age of 31, full of vigor. They positioned the brand as approachable luxury, with prices ranging from $295 to $795, aiming to create an innovative, elegant, and chic New York contemporary wardrobe for consumers.
At that time, designer Phillip Lim, along with Prabal Gurung, Jason Wu, Alexander Wang, and Opening Ceremony founders Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, was regarded as a key representative of the wave of Asian American fashion designers. He received the CFDA Womenswear Newcomer Award in 2007, the Swarovski Menswear Award in 2012, and the Accessories Designer of the Year Award in 2013.
In the following twenty years, 3.1 Phillip Lim rapidly developed into a globally influential brand, expanding its presence to retailers such as Saks, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman, while opening 11 stores in countries including the United States, China, Japan, and Thailand. The brand’s categories expanded to include women’s wear, men’s wear, accessories, and footwear collections, with annual sales exceeding $100 million.
3.1 Phillip Lim has remained independently operated to this day. Wen Zhou, whose ancestral home is Ningbo, Zhejiang, successfully founded two fabric and clothing production companies and subsequently played a key role in the supply chain management and business expansion of 3.1 Phillip Lim.
After the global pandemic in 2020, 3.1 Phillip Lim experienced a severe financial crisis, having to lay off a quarter of its staff and return some store leases. Phillip Lim and Wen Zhou admitted in media interviews that the brand was on the verge of losing everything and was confused. The brand’s fashion shows, which had been held continuously for 14 years, were suspended in 2019 and only returned to New York Fashion Week in September 2023.
After 2021, Phillip Lim devoted more energy to social welfare projects, attempting to strike a balance between fashion and social services to support the Asian community.
In a statement, the 3.1 Phillip Lim brand emphasized that despite Phillip Lim ending his partnership with the brand, it still has the ability to continue thriving. However, many industry insiders remain pessimistic about the impact of the departure of the eponymous designer, even though 3.1 Phillip Lim is known for its practical contemporary fashion style and the design team is already well-established.
As the influence of American fashion and New York Fashion Week declines, a group of New York Asian fashion designers who rose in the 2000s are each seeking their own path.
Alexander Wang‘s personal brand was invested in by the domestic apparel group Youngor in 2022. After Jason Wu received investment from Semir Garment, he was acquired by Shenzhen private equity fund Yinggang Capital, and this month he opened an account on Xiaohongshu to test the waters of live streaming.
Carol Lim and Humberto Leon sold Opening Ceremony to New Guards Group, invested by Farfetch, and stepped down as creative directors of Kenzo in 2019. Thai-American designer Thakoon Panichgul began serving as the creative director for the Japanese jewelry brand TASAKI after 2009.
Other contemporary designer brands like Proenza Schouler and Altuzarra are losing momentum, while a new wave of American fashion brands like The Row, Khaite, The Frankie Shop, and Sporty & Rich are on the rise.
3.1 Phillip Lim, which has not accepted external investment for 20 years and has not generated revenue through other creative projects, remains unique among a group of designer brands.
However, the departure of the key figure seems to instantly shake 20 years of solid accumulation and also plunges the future of the designer brand into great uncertainty once again.