CFDA-winning designer Phillip Lim.Photo: Getty Images
After the Fug Girls got us thinking about the effect the WGA strike would have on the fashion industry, we caught up with designer Phillip Lim and asked him about it at Repetto’s 60th-anniversary party last week. Lim is a well liked, quickly rising designer who has been showing since fall 2005, and is therefore a good example of a designer who is established but by no means on as stable ground as any of the giant houses that have been around for much longer. So what does he think about the strike, which is appearing to affect more and more people as time goes on? “It’s about how it trickles down to retailers, how it trickles down to restaurants, how it trickles down to the community,” said the bubbly Lim. “They’ve got to work it out and get on with it. It’s almost selfish to just keep on with the struggle.” So if it affects everybody, it must be affecting Lim himself, right? “For us, we have a distribution in Los Angeles. Our stores, people we sell to, they’re affected by it. So in the end it affects us.” And the loss of award shows? “[A presence on the red carpet] boosts business, but we didn’t build our business on that premise, so in the end it doesn’t hurt us a ton,” Lim explained. “We make clothes for the ‘everywoman,’ you know.” Still, we’re guessing some other, more gown-oriented designers (Marchesa, much?) would have killed for the opportunity to dress Keira Knightley last Sunday…—Jada Yuan
Earlier: No Golden Globes? Now Everything’s Fugged Up
Related: Mr. In-Between [NYM]
