Philip Lim is an American Fashion designer of Chinese descent whose parents emigrated from Thailand during the Cambodian Genocide. Lim studied finance for 3 years at California State University at Long Beach before switching to a degree in home economics. He co-founded Los Angeles based design label Development in 2000. While working for Development, his designs were noted by Wen Zhou. She, at the time, was running a successful textiles company that Supplied Development. The two then partnered to form New York City based 3.1 Philip Lim in 2005.

3.1 Philip Lim is a fast growing contemporary brand with a thriving business and stores around the world. Philip Lim is a key figure in New York’s wave of Asian-American fashion designers, and is known for his youthfully elegant wardrobe classics,including men’s and women’s lines as well as as handbags, with a twist.