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As a child growing up in Los Gatos, California, Khoi Le was fascinated with the fashion industry and, in particular, designer Marc Jacobs. Encouraged by his mother, he began by patching pieces of leather together on his grandmother's sewing machine and eventually, like Jacobs, enrolled at Parsons. A subsequent internship with designer Bliss Lau proved to be life-changing; as Le says, Lau, "really helped solidify what type of work ethic New York expects of you." Then, at the tender age of 18, Lau helped Le land a dream internship with his idol Jacobs.
Those formative experiences led to Khoi's namesake line, which is composed of leather bags and accessories including a backpack inspired by Le's high school JanSport. He gifted the stripped-down style to fashionable friends who wore it around New York and, after that, sales poured in (Le even counts a JoBro among his fans).
Currently, Le splits his time between his home and production headquarters in Los Gatos and New York City. His favorite medium to work in is leather. As he explains, "Leather is a living, breathing material. If you take care of it, if it's done right and it's produced well, it'll last you a lifetime." Meet Khoi and see his work in our video profile, above.
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