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, together with his partner Jan-Hendrik Schlottmann, launched his eponymous label in 2003.

The line comprises a women’s ready-to wear collection, shoes, handbags and eyewear. In 2006 Derek Lam was named Creative Director of Tod’s, the Italian accessories company, a position which he continues to hold today.

Derek's vision for his own 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 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."

Derek Lam opened his first stand alone boutique in May 2009 at 12 Crosby Street in downtown New York (Soho). The retail concept and store was designed by the Japanese architects Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima ( SANAA ) who were awarded the Pritzker Prize of Architecture in 2010. Derek Lam once again enlisted SANAA to design his second store at 764 Madison Avenue which will open in September 2010

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, London's Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibit of significant New York fashion, and the Museum at FIT’s Gothic: Dark Glamour exhibition. 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.