Christine Chiu talks about new Netflix fashion show, haute couture collection

• Christine chiu is a producer, philanthropist and collector of haute couture. She is also the co-founder of Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery, the practice she opened in 2006 with her husband, Dr Gabriel Chiu.
• Chiu usually attends at least 30 fashion shows a year and tries to buy something from everyone. High fashion can cost over $ 100,000, and Chiu says her most expensive piece is worth more than the average american house.
• She is also a philanthropist and sits on the boards of over 27 organizations around the world, including Prince Foundation Chiu Integrated Health and Wellness Program, launched with her husband and Prince Charles in 2019.
• Her lifestyle will be on display in her new Netflix show, “Bling Empire,” which chronicles the lives of wealthy Asians and Asian Americans from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds living in Los Angeles.
• Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

One day, Christine Chiu was talking to a friend, telling her how much she loved an outfit she had seen at a fashion show. It was a piece of haute couture, of course. Each of these is unique, one of a kind and therefore can only be sold once. It is also generally quite expensive. Chiu had to get his hands on it.

“I found out later that [my friend] had changed her meeting time with the fashion house before mine so she could buy it first, “Chiu told Insider.” I quickly learned that all is fair in love and sewing.

Not all companies can say they are making high fashion. In France, it is regulated by the Ministry of Industry, which chooses the true emblems of the craft brands.

Read more: Inside the weird and expensive pandemic shopping for rich kids, from $ 1,000 Patagonia fleeces to a $ 31.8 million T. rex

Chiu attended her first haute couture show at the age of 26 and remembers it clearly. She had bright eyes and was full of excitement. “I was immediately transported to an era of ultimate luxury and sophistication,” she said, “and fell in love with these museum-worthy pieces of wearable art.”

During the pandemic, Chiu said her shopping methods had not changed, but her perception of what it means to consume luxury responsibly had changed. She said she found herself very motivated to spend money on brands that had a moral standing.

For example, Chiu paid special attention when Burberry used its trench coat factories to make hospital gowns, and when Valentino and Balmain donated millions of dollars to the COVID-19 relief effort. She also watched to see how businesses responded to the Black Lives Matter protests.

There are rules to this high fashion game

A typical, non-pandemic year sees Chiu attending around 30 shows per year – that’s about 15 shows per fashion season. She usually buys something from every show and has amassed a collection that includes dresses, capes, accessories, and even shoes.

Photo by Marc Piasecki / Getty Images / Getty Images

Sewing pieces can easily cost over $ 100,000, and Chiu has said, without naming prices, that her more expensive pieces cost “more than the median cost of a home in the United States.” It was over $ 300,000 in the summer of 2020. They cost “less than a job by Jeff Koons,” she said – the most recent of those just sold publicly for $ 91 million. dollars.

A glimpse of her jet-set lifestyle can be seen in her new Netflix show “Bling Empire” which premiered on January 15th. The show chronicles the lives of successful Asians and Asian Americans, from a variety of cultural and professional backgrounds, living in Los Angeles. It will star DJ Kim Lee, investor Kane Lim, and Jaime Xie, daughter of the founder of billionaire Fortinet Ken Xie.

Chiu is the show’s producer and told Insider that she wants to show the journey of herself and her husband – with whom she founded Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery in 2006 – by balancing Western expectations with values ​​and oriental traditions.

Chiu’s journey began in Taiwan, where she was born. (She moved to the United States when she was 5.) Her husband, on the other hand, is from Hong Kong and came to the United States 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 a lot of couture. “It was an amazing experience full of laughs and tears for me,” Lee told Insider of her experience working on the show, adding that Chiu “really 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 high fashion is for events – weddings, red carpets, movie festivals. However, that all changed with the pandemic. But let’s pretend, just a moment, that it’s the year 2019.

This would see Chiu in New York, London, Rome and Paris. These are just the big names in fashion cities, not counting the trips in between. Each city has its own fashion houses, and each house – be it Chanel, Givenchy, Armani or Christian Dior – has its respective traditions and desired protocols.

Photo by Marc Piasecki / WireImage / Getty Images

Typically, Chiu says, the haute couture shopping experience begins like this: Each house gives a presentation, commonly referred to as a fashion show. From there the game begins.

High fashion clients should be invited, as the Wall Street Journal’s Christina Binkley reports, and they’re usually introduced by someone who knows someone very well connected to a high fashion house.

During fashion weeks, these invite-only people are allowed to book private dates to get a second look at what was shown during the presentations.

“Some houses would rent a mannequin [to] “Re-model” the pieces selected by the client, “Chiu said.” While in other circumstances, the designer walks meets with clients to discuss [their] inspiration and make personal recommendations. ”

Once the potential buyer has selected their preferred look, they can suggest other outfit customizations.

Once the deposit is filed, the person waits six to 12 months for the exhibit to be produced.

During this time, there are at least two to three fittings to make sure the look goes the way you want it to, Chiu said.

Read more: MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, has donated more than $ 4 billion in the past 4 months to help those economically affected by the pandemic

There are, however, a few rules in the game. On the one hand, it’s a misstep to ask for prizes – or discounts, for that matter. And sometimes, fashion houses only sell one look per country. Chiu told Harper’s Bazaar that when she cannot get an outfit as an American, she will try to buy a Taiwanese citizen, promising to wear the outfit only in that country.

Trying to buy high fashion with morality

Before the pandemic, Chiu said she 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 her purchase to an organization they both support, which she said led to contributions to AIDS research and education; and to increased access to medicines for poor communities. .

Her Netflix show is also used as a vehicle to showcase some of her favorite charities and organizations, she said. The show entered development in early 2018, and when it premiered it became one of the few shows to have an all-Asian ensemble. The participants come from various cultural backgrounds, including Vietnamese, Singaporean and Korean.

Courtesy of Christine Chiu

Chiu said the show’s original premise had nothing to do with showcasing wealth; rather, it was about revealing the cultural pressures, morals, values ​​and expectations that Asians living in the United States often face. That’s not to say the wealth won’t be on display, even though the on-screen scenes are very different from the reality Chiu finds herself experiencing.

Snuggled up in Los Angeles, there are no sweatpants yet. Chiu said she bought sunglasses, swimsuits, sneakers and sportswear. She will be, probably on the couch, watching her show like the rest of us, wearing comfortable, high-quality, sustainably-sourced clothing.

“After all,” she said. “The thought of running through Erewhon [Market] on the Louboutins platform, lugging around a Himalayan Birkin is really a thing of 2019. “