For market research, he polled a large swath of friends and colleagues, both inside the industry and out. “I did a survey with a group of trusted people,” he explains, “and I asked, ‘Where do you get your shirts?’ And what I got back was, “That’s a great question. I buy from here, but they’re not always right.’ Or ‘I buy when I find something.’ Or ‘I buy very expensive shirts, but I’m a bit cautious to wear them, or ‘I buy throwaway.’” Worst of all was “‘I can never find what I love again, because it’s so seasonal.’”
PlayLoveWin is set up differently. If and when a certain shirt connects with Lim’s audience, it will become part of the core offering. It’s almost anti-fashion, in that way. Except for the fact that shirts are having such a big moment. Matthieu Blazy partnered with the French shirtmaker Charvet for his debut Chanel show last October, and Chanel subsequently bought the famous Place Vendome company. “It’s definitely kismet,” Lim reflects. “You know, the antennas are up.” For him, he says, “it signaled the fact that I was able to bring myself back to a place where my antennas were dusted off, and I could feel what was percolating.” And for the record, he adds, the concept for PlayLoveWin predated the Chanel show.
As for the name, PlayLoveWin, it embodies Lim’s post 3.1 philosophy—and also happens to utilize his initials. He explains: “‘Play,’ because that’s what I want to do, you know? I want to relearn the process so that I can appreciate the process, and love it again. ‘Love,’ because when you do things with love, no matter how difficult, something good happens out of that. And the big word: ‘Win.’ As a son of immigrants, I am still working on this idea: do I deserve to win? Do we deserve to win? Why do we do so much, and we overachieve, and we push ourselves to the edge, just to be okay? Just to get to that acceptability. I think about my career, and it was always just getting to that line, and I was okay with it, no matter what it was, because I was so grateful. But with this chapter, I wanna break through.”
The odds look good. Though Lim’s original plan was to sell strictly direct-to-consumer via his own website, some former retail partners of his got wind of that July announcement and reached out. He plans to sell at x and y. “I want to win, and I want you to win,” he says, “and I want us to win together.”
Actor Ronnie Chieng, in the Spencer tailored fit shirt in navy high twist cotton oxford.
Photo: Sharif Hamza
