From 1959-1962 he attended the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York ("Calvin Richard Klein"). At FIT, the classes were "tedious" and the curriculum "pedantically oriented to learning a trade" (Gaines and Churcher 41)
Phillip Lim is the son of Chinese immigrants. He grew up in Orange County, California, where his mother worked 18-hour days as a seamstress in a garment factory (Dorment 2010)