Phillip Lim is a Cambodian-American fashion designer of Chinese ancestry made famous for his eponymous fashion line 3.1 Phillip Lim. His upscale (yet affordable) line of "street elegance" is the reason so many up-and-coming fashion kids still get to wear nice clothes.

Born in 1973 in Thailand, his family soon moved to Orange County, California where he received a thoroughly suburban upbringing. Lim studied Finance and Business at Cal State Long Beach before taking an interest in fashion. After an internship at fashion brand Katayone Adeli, he co-founded the label Development in 2000. Lim worked at development from ‘00-'04, but parted ways after some internal acrimony. Famously, Lim's friend and textile importer Wen Zhou mailed the designer a plane ticket to New York right after the split, and the brand 3.1 Phillip Lim was born in 2005. Now worth over 60 million USD, the brand has achieved global success as well as receiving much critical acclaim. In 2007, Lim won the Council of Fashion Designers of America "Emerging Talent in Womenswear Award" for his work as creative director of 3.1.

Darling of Vogue magazine, his fall 2006 and spring 2007 collections solidified his presence on the fashion map. Unlike other price-gougers in the world of luxury retail, Lim's vision has always been to design beautifully made, well constructed clothes at a reasonable price. He now operates stores in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Seoul, and Singapore, as well as wholesaling in nearly 400 stores throughout the world. He has also released a line of women's lingerie called, Initials, and has expanded his brand to design clothes for kids, pets, and the eco-conscious.

He lives and works in NYC.

[Image via Getty]