- Christine Chiu is a producer, philanthropist and collector of haute couture. She is also a co-founder of Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery, the practice she opened in 2006 with her husband, Dr. Gabriel Chiu.
- Chiu usually goes to at least 30 fashion shows a year and tries to buy something from each other. Haute couture can cost more than $ 100,000, and Chiu says his most expensive garment is worth more than the average US house.
- She is also a philanthropist and serves on the board of more than 27 organizations worldwide, including Prince’s Chiu Foundation Integrated Health and Wellness Program, launched with her husband and Prince Charles in 2019.
- His lifestyle will be shown on his new Netflix show, “Bling Empire”, which chronicles the lives of wealthy Asians and Asian Americans from various cultural and professional backgrounds, who live in Los Angeles.
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One day, Christine Chiu was talking to a friend, saying how much she loved an outfit she saw during a fashion show. It was a haute couture piece, of course. Each of them is unique, unique and therefore can only be sold once. It is also generally very expensive. Chiu had to get his hands on him.
“I found out later that [my friend] changed her opening hours with the fashion house before mine so she could buy it first, “Chiu told Insider.” I quickly learned that everything is fair in love and haute couture. “
Not every company can say that it does haute couture. In France, it is regulated by the Ministry of Industry, which chooses which brands are true handicraft emblems.
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Chiu attended his first haute couture show at the age of 26 and clearly remembers that. She had bright eyes and was full of emotion. “I was immediately transported to an era of luxury and refinement,” she said, “and I fell in love with these museum-worthy wearable pieces of art.”
During the pandemic, Chiu said his shopping methods have not changed, but his perception of what it means to consume luxury responsibly has changed. She said she found herself with a strong incentive to spend money on brands that adopted a moral stance.
For example, Chiu paid close attention when Burberry used its gabardine factories to make hospital gowns and when Valentino and Balmain donated millions to the COVID-19 relief effort. She also watched to see how companies responded to the Black Lives Matter protests.
There are rules for this couture game
In a typical pandemic-free year, Chiu goes to about 30 shows a year – or about 15 shows per fashion season. She usually buys something at each show and accumulated a collection that includes dresses, capes, accessories and even shoes.
Christine Chiu participates in the ‘Stephane Rolland’ Paris-Fall / Winter 2017-2018 fashion show as part of Haute Couture Paris Fashion Week.
Photo by Marc Piasecki / Getty Images / Getty Images
Haute couture pieces can easily cost more than $ 100,000 and Chiu said, without citing a price, that his most expensive pieces cost “more than the average cost of a home in the United States”. That was more than $ 300,000 in the summer of 2020. They cost “less than a Jeff Koons piece,” she clarified – the most recent of which has just been sold publicly for $ 91 million.
A glimpse of his jet set lifestyle can be seen on his new Netflix show, “Bling Empire”, which premiered on January 15. The program chronicles the lives of successful Asians and Asian Americans, from various cultural and professional backgrounds, who live in Los Angeles. The film will feature DJ Kim Lee, investor Kane Lim, and Jaime Xie, daughter of billionaire Fortinet founder Ken Xie.
Chiu is a producer on the show and told Insider that she wanted to show her and her husband’s journey – with whom she founded Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery in 2006 – in balancing Western expectations with Eastern values and traditions.
Chiu’s journey began in Taiwan, where she was born. (She moved to the United States when she was 5 years old.) Her husband, on the other hand, is from Hong Kong and came to the USA at the age of 2.
“Bling Empire” will show the Chiu family as philanthropists, raising awareness of their favorite charities and organizations; as world travelers living a jet set life and, of course, in high fashion. “It was an incredible experience, full of laughter and tears for me,” Lee told Insider of his experience working on the program, adding that Chiu “definitely knows how to throw the best parties.”
Knowing how to throw a good party is a basic skill on the jet-set circuit. In fact, Chiu said that one of the main reasons she buys haute couture is for events – weddings, red carpets, film festivals. Everything changed with the pandemic, however. But let’s pretend, for a moment, that it’s 2019.
That would see Chiu in New York, London, Rome and Paris. These are just the big fashion cities with names, not including the trips that come between them. Each city has its own fashion houses, and each home – whether Chanel, Givenchy, Armani or Christian Dior – has its respective desired traditions and protocols.
Christine Chiu participates in the Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture fall / winter 2019 2020 show as part of Paris Fashion Week.
Photo by Marc Piasecki / WireImage / Getty Images
Generally, said Chiu, the experience of buying haute couture starts like this: each house makes a presentation, commonly known as a fashion show. From there, the game begins.
Haute couture customers have to be invited, as reported by Christina Binkley of The Wall Street Journal, and they are usually introduced by someone who knows someone super connected to a haute couture house.
During fashion weeks, these invited-only individuals are allowed to schedule private appointments to get a second look at what was shown in the presentations.
“Some houses would hire a model [to] ‘remodel’ the customer’s selected pieces, “said Chiu.” While in other circumstances, the designer will meet with customers to discuss [their] inspiration and make personal recommendations. ”
After the potential buyer selects their favorite look, they can suggest other customizations for the outfit.
After a deposit is made, the person waits six to 12 months for the part to be produced.
During that time, there are at least two to three accessories to ensure that the appearance is matching as desired, said Chiu.
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However, there are some rules for the game. On the one hand, it is a faux pas to ask about price – or discounts, in this case. And sometimes fashion houses sell only one look per country. Chiu told Harper’s Bazaar that when she can’t get an outfit like an American, she will try to buy a Taiwanese citizen, promising to wear only the clothes in that country.
Trying to buy high fashion with morale
Before the pandemic, Chiu said he had always tried to find a way to use fashion to highlight the causes of social justice. Even before the pandemic, she said she would ask fashion houses to donate a percentage of their purchase to an organization they both support, which, she said, led to contributions to research, education and increased access to medicines for poor communities. . .
Her Netflix program is also being used as a vehicle to highlight some of her favorite charities and organizations, she said. The show began to be developed in early 2018 and, after its debut, it became one of the few shows to have an all-Asian ensemble. Participants come from various cultural backgrounds, including Vietnamese, Singaporean and Korean.
Christine Chiu beside her husband and son.
Courtesy of Christine Chiu
Chiu said the show’s original premise had nothing to do with showing wealth; instead, it was mainly about revealing the cultural pressures, morals, values and expectations with which Asians living in the United States are often confronted. This does not mean that the wealth will not be displayed, however, even if the scenes on the screen are very different from the reality that Chiu lives.
Snuggled in Los Angeles, there is still no sweatshirt stitching. Chiu said he is buying sunglasses, swimsuits, sneakers and gym clothes. She’ll probably be on the couch, watching your show like the rest of us, wearing comfortable, high-quality clothes and sustainable sources.
“After all,” she said. “The idea of running for Erewhon [Market] on the Louboutins platform, carrying a Himalayan Birkin is very much a 2019 thing. “