DEREK LAM
Derek Lam, a native of San Francisco, began his fashion career in 1990 after graduating from Parsons School of Design. After twelve years spent at the highest levels of American fashion as a designer at Michael Kors, Lam launched his eponymous label in 2003.
Derek's vision for his label is to create clothes that are both luxurious and wearable, with a feminine but unfussy beauty about them. His touch is especially sophisticated: modern but never cold, fantastical but always rational. He skillfully manages the combination of refinement and sensuality, with exceptional fabrics and highly perfected detail. He strives to make fashion that is timeless in its elegance: to offer one clear example, Lam is known already for cutting the most perfect trench. "I am interested in what it means to live a contemporary life," says Lam. "I always consider what will work for women at this moment, and to me this moment is about luxury without formality. Even at their most feminine, my clothes are not precious or staid."
Lam has received abundant recognition within the fashion industry. He won the CFDA Perry Ellis-Swarovski Award for Emerging Talent in Womenswear in 2005, and was a winner of the Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund Prize in 2005. In 2007, he won Accessory Designer of the Year at the 2007 CFDA Awards. His work was exhibited at the Kennedy Center's "The New China Chic" exhibition in 2006, and at London's Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibit of significant New York fashion. His deep engagement and creative dialogue with the worlds of art and architecture led to the inclusion of his design in the Neue Galerie's monograph on Egon Schiele, whom Lam considers an inspiration.
Derek's vision for his label is to create clothes that are both luxurious and wearable, with a feminine but unfussy beauty about them. His touch is especially sophisticated: modern but never cold, fantastical but always rational. He skillfully manages the combination of refinement and sensuality, with exceptional fabrics and highly perfected detail. He strives to make fashion that is timeless in its elegance: to offer one clear example, Lam is known already for cutting the most perfect trench. "I am interested in what it means to live a contemporary life," says Lam. "I always consider what will work for women at this moment, and to me this moment is about luxury without formality. Even at their most feminine, my clothes are not precious or staid."
Lam has received abundant recognition within the fashion industry. He won the CFDA Perry Ellis-Swarovski Award for Emerging Talent in Womenswear in 2005, and was a winner of the Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund Prize in 2005. In 2007, he won Accessory Designer of the Year at the 2007 CFDA Awards. His work was exhibited at the Kennedy Center's "The New China Chic" exhibition in 2006, and at London's Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibit of significant New York fashion. His deep engagement and creative dialogue with the worlds of art and architecture led to the inclusion of his design in the Neue Galerie's monograph on Egon Schiele, whom Lam considers an inspiration.
