Meet Yian Lee | Illustrator& Fashion Stylist & Creative Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Yian Lee and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Yian, let’s start by talking about what inspires you?
I’m inspired by the emotion and always trying to dig deep into it and want to figure out why and where it came from. Why I feel this way, and how it leads me.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
It’s interesting to tell my story every time when I have a chance to talk about it. When I was a kid, I draw everyday and anywhere, I just can’t stop doing it. And when I was little, my dream is to become a painter/artist, even thought I don’t really understand what it will looks like if one day I really become what I’ve dream about.

And everyone knows, life is not that easy.
There’s always an unexpected incident happen or something we’ve been told what we should follow in the society we live in. In most asian society , there are many “invisible rules” we followed and most of us can’t even notice when we’re young. Even my parents are both work in creative/design filed, I don’t know why, but I always
have a voice in my head when I was in high school, and that voice always telling me ” be a good student, go to a good college.”
So for some reason, I stop drawing and trying to be a “good student” in high school, but and the same time, become a “creative” is still in my subconscious.
I accidentally went to collage in French literature major, and during that time, I was completely lost. I don’t know why I choose this path and why uI’m here. And it all change at the moment I arrived in NYC.
I study fashion marketing in Parsons the New School, and that’t the first time I had a chance to show my creative side, and I finally feel like I’m doing something I’m good at after all those lost years.
Before Parsons, I have a chance to take a course in FIT about Fashion Stying, I took that course just because I’m curious about this professional, not because I know I want to become a fashion stylist one day. But in the second year in Parsons, luckily I have a chance to be a stying assistant. I learned a lot from those experience, and started to do it by my own.
However, everything change because of the pandemic.
During pandemic, I can’t go out to do the shooting. And that’s how I found my new passion: Illustration.
In illustration, I found that I have a completely freedom to create a scene that is in my head, I can control everything I imagine, and this discovery open a new door for me.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Museum is alway the first thing come up in my head. If I have a friend come to visit me in NYC, I will bring her/him to Whitney Museum or the New Museum, so after the visit we can explore SOHO or the lower east site area in NYC.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I can’t think about any specific person or a group. But what inspired me the most are all creatives, no matter in what filed. the drive inside of me is very simple: figure out who I am, and what I’m capable in this world. So I always eager to try something new. I love to challenge myself, and to see the progress day by day.

Website: https://www.yianleestylist.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tinyjelly_yian/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yian-lee-a86a8416b/