A gifted artist, painter, and designer, Kim-Lieu graduated from the National Institute of Applied Arts in Paris, France, and resettled in the Washington, DC, Metro Area. She began her freelance design work in DC, New York, and California after a successful fashion show of her hand-painted, hand-made outfits and accessories at the Hilton Hotel in Arlington, Virginia in 1985. To respond to the many requests for her wedding and evening gown designs from those who admire her talents and super painting skills, she has agreed to provide consultation to selected customers and designed gowns and accessories, including jewelry, for dozens of bridal parties while raising a family. Her compassion and lifelong desire are to present the Vietnamese traditional dress to the world and encourage Vietnamese women to preserve the "ao dai" that magnifies their natural beauty. Recently she traveled extensively in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia and Thailand, to perfect her design in Batik and to test magnificient colors of Thai silk. She also spent an extensive period of time researching and reconstructing Vietnamese women’s “ao dai” over the years. At requests of Western friends and expats, she eventually agreed to give a demonstration of these collections to an audience of foreigners and expats. In this demonstration, she also presented her collections of designed, hand-painted and custom-made wedding and evening gowns, each accompanied by a specially designed set of matching jewelry. Responding to requests from her customers, her superb painting skills branched out to artworks for interior design, including decorative pillows, table cloths, tea sets, etc. Her work has been featured in writings by various fashion reviewers, such as Tran Thi Lai-Hong in "Ao Dai Vietnam" and other journals.