Phillip Lim

“There is a secret hippie within me.”

“I have always had a relationship with clothes.”

“I'm such a technophobe.”

“When I say that I'm a businessperson and a dressmaker, it's the truth. I run a business, and I make dresses, I make blouses.”

“I think my parents were immigrants, you know, so I guess I would be first generation. Growing up in California.”

“When people ask about inspirations, and you're like 'oh, it was a flower or a mountain or a pony', some people just think you're insane. I'm worried to come across that way.”

“I'm shy.”

“I try to always have flowers in the house. I have a florist in Chinatown, and they deliver orchids every two weeks. I like living with living things.”

“I started in college as a business major and finally transferred to home economics and studied making clothes.”

“I love crazy, gaudy bling.”

“You can make jeans and a t-shirt super stylish. It's what you make of it, you know?”

“Just because you work in the fashion industry, it doesn't mean you live your life in fashion.”

“Being from a very traditional Chinese-American family, my parents believed the only options to have a successful life were to be a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer or a business person.”

“My mother has become my daughter and I've become her guardian.”

“I'm not such a public person.”

“I don't have a life where it's galas, posh affairs. It's me, my dog and a sofa. And a TV.”

“My mother was a seamstress, so making clothes was not something you would willingly go into.”

“I'm really a classicist at heart - with a bit of madness!”

“You know, for myself, my personal journey has been a very fortunate one and I would say to people it's like the stars lined up and the skies opened up and the sun shined and I met the right people - was at the right time. And, most importantly, you know I love what I do.”