In 2022, she was posthumously conferred as a National Artist of the Philippines, being the second fashion designer to receive the distinction following her contemporary Ramon Valera.

[2] A native of Legazpi,[2] Lim went to Manila to study fine arts at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) and aimed to be a painter.

After the end of the war, while waiting for school to resume, she sent sketches of her fashion design to the Manila Times, and began going by the trade name "Slim".

Along with her elder sister Purificacion and family friend Consuelo Barberan, Slim would set up a fashion design shop in Manila in 1947 which later moved along to what is now Taft Avenue.

[2] Slim, would be heavily influenced by Hollywood culture of the 1950s and 1960s and would frequent Europe and New York to study fashion collections, learn techniques, and buy designer clothes to further improve her craft.