Mary Ping

Mary Ping (born 1978) is an American fashion designer based in New York City. She is best known for her conceptual label "Slow and Steady Wins the Race" (founded in New York in 2001-2), although she has also designed under her own label.

Biography Ping studied fine art at Vassar College, graduating in 2000. The following year, aged 23, she launched her label. Apart from having attended design courses at the London College of Fashion, and working as an intern with Robert Cary-Williams, she had had little formal training.

In 2004, Mary Ping was one of five winners of the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation Award. As of 2007 her designs were sold in New York, Los Angeles, and Tokyo.

In 2007, Ping's work was selected along with designs by Zac Posen, Proenza Schouler, Derek Lam, and Behnaz Sarafpour to represent contemporary sportswear in the Victoria and Albert Museum's New York Fashion Now exhibition. Museum at F.I.T., the R.I.S.D. Museum, Deste Foundation, and the Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette. She is a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

"Balenciaga" bag by Mary Ping, cotton twill & brass, 2007. RISD Museum At the time of the Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibition in 2007, Slow and Steady Wins the Race was presented as having been founded on the Upper East Side in 2001 by an anonymous 23-year-old creator born in New York. and by 2008, was increasingly known as the label's founder. The concept of the label in 2005 was to offer inexpensive, affordable designs in limited numbers (originally 100, but increased to 3500), retailing for less than $100 apiece.

In 2017, Slow and Steady Wins the Race received Cooper Hewitt's National Design Award for achievements in Fashion Design.

In 2017, Slow and Steady Wins the Race was featured in MoMA's fashion exhibit Items: Is Fashion Modern?, the museum's first fashion exhibit in 70 years.