Phillip Lim Redefines ‘Functional Fashion’ With Sports Inspired, Antibacterial Collection
Photo: Courtesy of 3.1 Phillip Lim
Lim is calling this new collection “at-leisure,” clothes designed to move with you and adapt to your life. With sport-inspired details, sweat-wicking materials, and a game-changing antibacterial treatment, they’re the rare example of truly functional.
By mid-April, Phillip Lim had been “hunkering down” in his New York apartment for one month and had that thought: I have nothing to wear. This is a designer who has run his own business, 3.1 Phillip Lim, for 15 years; it’s fair to assume his wardrobe is well-stocked. It isn’t that he was lacking great clothes; it’s just that they just didn’t feel relevant to his dramatically different life. What do you wear to comfortably work from home for weeks on end, other than sweats? What about for the two-hour walks we’ve been taking to preserve our sanity? Or the myriad activities that have moved outdoors, like dining, drinking, socializing, even catching a movie? Lim felt compelled to design a collection for this moment, not the far-off future Fashion’s standard cycle of predicting what we’ll be in the mood for six months from now felt newly archaic. “What am I going to wear just to get through the day and be ready to move?” he says. “I didn’t want to live in sweatpants or pajamas. I needed something adaptable.”On his coffee table, he started sketching what is now Live Free, a new direct-to-consumer capsule of comfortable, durable, and highly considered essentials for men and women: boxy T-shirts, relaxed blazers, split-hem trousers, weightless parkas.
Lim calls it “at-leisure,” a play on athleisure, the key difference being that you wouldn’t actually exercise in these clothes. There’s a pair of leggings, but they’re for “running around,” not marathon training; they’re comfier than your vintage jeans, but sturdier and more like “real pants” than your Spandex tights. They’re wardrobe building blocks that are made for living,” he says. This was created in the present to allow us to be in the present and feel a sense of freedom.
Lim is really excited to make “Live Free” accessible, this is helpful because many people right now are spending less on fashion. Since the collection is available exclusively on his website and in his stores, the prices are nearly half of what they’d be in a retailer, starting at $30 for a face mask and topping out at $575. That coincides with a larger shift in Lim’s business model, with fewer wholesale partners and a bigger emphasis on direct-to-consumer sales. “Direct-to-consumer allows us to manage common sense,” he adds. “In the past, we delivered winter in the summer, and summer in the winter. With this collection, we aren’t beholden to the [old-fashioned] calendar.”
On that note, the first capsule launches November 10 to “lay the foundation” for additional collections to come in December and January. Mark your calendar and shop and don’t forget to purchase on his website.
Photos Courtesy of 3.1 Phillip Lim
By: Kristen Glover
Social Media: @kris_fashionista