Larry Phillips Dies at 95

February 24, 2013  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Obituaries on February 25, 2013 Phillips Collection founder Lawrence Phillips died Feb. 8 at age 95.

Phillips was born in New York in 1917 and attended Brooklyn College where he graduated at the age of 19. He went on to serve his country in Germany during World War II, where his platoon was among the first U.S. troops to liberate the concentration camps.

He came back from the war to join a fledgling dress business with his father and brother. They evolved into manufacturing and began to travel to Hong Kong in the late 60€™s. At this point, Larry€™s wife, Shirley Phillips, joined the company and together they started selling to high-end department stores such as Bloomingdales.

Running a factory in Hong Kong kept the pair traveling around the world. They would collect beautiful objects from exotic countries such as Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos. Friends would visit their home on Long Island and be enthralled by the wonderful furniture and décor pieces, not only by the design and craftsmanship but by the stories Larry and Shirley would tell. The iconography, motif and trips through the jungles of Indonesia to reach the one village that was carving stones with a magic moving center into what they call the Kalimantan Egg. As they developed a sophisticated eye for antiquities, they became prominent New York dealers in Asian fine arts. They sold to the Met, LACMA, Chicago Art Institute, British Museum and the Stuttgart Museum.
 
They saw great opportunity to bring this global style to the furniture industry and asked their son Mark and his wife, Julie, to join them on a trip around the world. And so in 1983, Phillips Collection was founded.
 
Larry Phillips is survived by wife, Shirley Phillips; sons Mark and Michael Phillips, and their grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Phillips' grandson Jason Phillips, vice president and creative director at Phillips Collection, High Point, said his grandfather was ever one to shy away from connecting dots, "even if they are 12,000 miles apart."
 
"If you asked Larry Phillips what he was, he€™d say a 'business man,'" Jason said. "If you asked anyone who knew Larry what he was, the answer would be more like €˜tastemaker€™ or €˜visionary.'"