Lee was a competitive ice skater from 6 to 16 and worked with her mom to create costumes for her programs.
“When I first started ice skating, a lot of the outfits that I wanted didn’t really exist. If you wanted something that was really elegant and showed great movement and grace, it was meant for Olympic skaters,” Lee recalled.
“My mom taught me how to help her create these costumes to make our programs come alive,” she added. “I have the most fond memories of staying up late with my mom, bedazzling crystals on my dress in hopes to really glimmer in competition.”
When Lee went to UCLA, she joined the university’s fashion club to keep learning new skills and techniques while pursuing a degree in bioengineering.
“I designed four collections in four years for our annual fashion show and, through that, kind of honed my craft,” Lee said. “This was before YouTube, so I would take patterns from Joann Fabric and reconstruct them to create different garments. I learned how to pattern through that.”