LA confidential: Phillip Lim’s inaugural concept store is a triumphant homecoming

‘This is where it all started for me,’ says Phillip Lim of the Los Angeles Arts District, ‘The simple pleasures of being young, sexy, free.’

It was here that a young Lim opened his first design studio at the beginning of his career in the early noughties. Returning now, over ten years later to open his eponymous studio’s first retail concept store, much has changed for Lim. The Arts District, however, has retained the vibrancy and energy that he originally fell in love with.

3.1 Phillip Lim's LA boutique showcases a rotating series of artworks

Part art gallery, part showroom, the 3.1 Phillip Lim concept store is housed in a 5,000 sq ft industrial space has been designed in collaboration with MR Architecture + Decor and retail designer Kate McCullough, both based in New York. Underneath the building’s timber vaulted ceiling, surfaces have been kept pared back and neutral with whitewashed brick walls, polished concrete and cream-coloured carpet. Clear plastic curtains are used to divide the space, while rails are fashioned from copper piping and rough blocks of stone are used as display plinths.

In keeping with the neighbourhood’s spirit of conversation, community, and collaboration, the new store will showcase artworks and product by a series of like-minded creatives. Displayed alongside the studio’s latest collections, shoppers will find lighting by design studio Apparatus, furniture and objects from Patrick Parrish Gallery, general store M Crow & Co, and design studio Li Inc among others.