EXCLUSIVE: Phillip Lim Steps Down From 3.1 Phillip Lim

In a surprise move, designer Phillip Lim is stepping down as creative director of 3.1 Phillip Lim. 

Lim’s show during September New York Fashion Week, featuring a joy-tinged spring 2025 collection that marked the brand’s 20-year anniversary, will be his last collection for the brand. 

In a joint statement shared exclusively with WWD, Lim and Wen Zhou, cofounder and chief executive officer, said, “It is with great respect and gratitude for each other and our long partnership that we have decided to part ways at 3.1 Phillip Lim. As the brand moves into a new chapter, we are so proud of what we have built and the strength of genuine community around us. Our shared vision and hard work has allowed us to stay independent and achieve remarkable success in a constantly changing and challenging industry.

“From the very beginning, our goal was to create something meaningful, and along the way, we realized we could also inspire positive change, champion creativity, responsibility, and collaboration. We are incredibly proud of the impact we’ve made for the past 20 years and for that we will be eternally thankful,” they continued. “This moment marks a natural turning point for both of us, each with new goals and different visions for the future. Wen will stay on as CEO and sole proprietor of 3.1 Phillip Lim, while Phillip will pursue new ventures. Though our partnership is ending, the brand remains in capable hands and we are certain will continue to thrive.”

Beyond Zhou staying on as CEO and sole proprietor of 3.1 Phillip Lim, there was no mention regarding the succession plan for the label’s creative director role.

Lim and Wen cofounded the advanced contemporary label in 2015 in New York City with the purpose of creating accessible beauty. Since then Lim has become a staple of American fashion known for his signature head-to-toe wardrobing, spanning from dresses and tailoring to bags and shoes, that meld downtown cool and casual chic with everyday functionality. The sweet spot of his aspirational yet attainable collections is between $295 and $795.

Since its inception the brand has managed to stay independent while expanding beyond womenswear and into menswear, accessories and footwear categories; increasing sustainability efforts throughout the years, and opening stores from New York and Hawaii to China and Japan. 

In 2023, the duo spoke to WWD about rebuilding their company post-pandemic with a sense of purpose, after almost losing it entirely.

“How do you sustain this since there’s no going forward?” Lim told WWD of what he recalled asking himself in March 2020, when the creative director and his team were working on his pre-spring 2021 collection but had to abruptly stop due to the pandemic. During that time, he also had to deal with store and office leases; in-transit goods, and more. 

“We had to figure out what the business plan was, and what stores were doing. Where were we shipping this? You have all these clothes from the other side of the world coming in, and you’re like, ‘Can you hold that?’” Lim said. “It just came to a standstill. We had to think about how do you save the greater whole? We had to dip into our savings to secure health insurance for people. We had to ask people to take a cut in salaries. In the end, there were 40 people we kept. It wasn’t so drastic. About 25 to 30 percent had to go.”

“For the first year or few years into COVID, I was trying to figure out the supply chain situation, the team structure, the exiting of all the leases we could exit. It was a lot of energy to put into making sure we still have a good, solid ground to stand on,” Zhao said. The brand had to exit stores in Los Angeles, London, Singapore and Hong Kong. “It was really tough. We also had this big overhead of space at Brookfield Place [in Manhattan]. We had to get out of that. There was a lot of stuff to do. We tried to keep the design team activated and still being creative. And then the attack on Asians, and that was a difficult layer for us to digest and make sense [of],” she added.

During this time, Lim leaned into at-home-friendly dressing with a line of “at leisure” garments; he started “New York Tougher Than Ever” T-shirts, sweatshirts and pins to raise money for inner-city youth; spent a lot of time cooking at home, and cofounded House of Slay with his friends Prabal Gurung, Laura Kim, Tina Leung and Ezra Williams to combat anti-Asian sentiment. 

Coming out of the pandemic, the brand presented collections by private appointment before returning to New York Fashion Week in September 2023 with Lim’s spring 2024 collection, featuring the likes of Awkwafina, Kimora Lee Simmons, Leon Bridges, Nicky Hilton, Teyana Taylor and more in the front row.

“We were not ready to come back. Not ready, clarity-wise, but it takes money. As an independent brand, you are financing this. What was interesting about this show, there was so much sponsorship and community rallied for us to be able to do this show. In the past years, I’ve been using my time for community and this time around, community showed up for me. That’s why it was such an emotional show,” Lim told WWD of the show. “It was the story of an underdog, an independent brand at the verge of losing it all and somehow finding himself within the rubble.”

In October 2023, Lim told WWD that looking ahead, he was trying to balance his time between fashion and service, having received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from his alma mater, California State University, Long Beach earlier that year. During this time, Zhou also said business was “good” and profitable; after the return to the runway, the brand was feeling love from the community, online, social, influencers and press.