Carolyn Yim is a multi-disciplinary founder and writer.
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She is a fellow at:
Asia Society, a Rockefeller-founded non-profit on bridging US-China.
Interact SF, a non-profit on the philosophy of technology.
MIT Media Lab x SUSTech School of Design’s Scaleable HCI, a residency on building hardware in Shenzhen and Boston.
She writes the nonpartisan newsletter Designed in China to track China’s behavioral changes in arts, culture, new media, and technologies.
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She runs her family’s 50-person manufacturing company, using computers to produce sustainable knitwear. She founded two product brands, Ply-Knits and Dreyden, with her hand in everything up to downstream: raw material sourcing, materials science, design, production, marketing, branding, and retailing.
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She had speaking engagements on Freakonomics Radio NY (2023), Interact Symposium SF (2025), Beyond Expo Macau (2026), and published an Op-Ed in SCMP (2026).
Her business and design work has been covered in:
AnOther Magazine
Business of Fashion
Business Insider
Byrdie
Conde Nast Traveler
Cosmopolitan
Coveteur
DAZED Magazine
ELLE
ELLE China
Forbes
Goop
New York Magazine
Nylon
Paper Magazine
SCMP
VOGUE
VOGUE Hong Kong
VOGUE Japan
Wallpaper*
WhoWhatWear
WWD
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She has consulted for and created strategic partnerships with:
Art Basel, Hong Kong
Center of Heritage Arts and Textiles, The Mills, Hong Kong
FarFetch, London
Net-A-Porter, London
Labelhood, Shanghai
Lane Crawford, Hong Kong, Shanghai
Samuel Gui Yang
The Paris Review, New York
TMall/ Alibaba, Shanghai
Uber, Hong Kong
Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, New York
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Carolyn received her BA at Columbia University, New York, and MA at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.
Every winter, she manufactures and donates children’s knitwear and blankets for The Love Foundation, a non-profit for children of migrant workers. She likes to swim and row.