Christine Chiu talks about a new Netflix show, collection of haute couture

• 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. Haute couture can cost more than $ 100,000, and according to Chiu, her most expensive piece is worth more the average American house.
• She is also a philanthropist and is on the board of more than 27 organizations worldwide, including The Prince’s Foundation Chiu Integrated Health and Wellness Program, launched with her husband and Prince Charles in 2019.
• Her lifestyle will be featured in her new Netflix show, ‘Bling Empire’, which describes the lives of wealthy Asians and Asian Americans from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds living in Los Angeles.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

One day, Christine Chiu talked to a friend and told her how much she loves an outfit she saw during a fashion show. It was, of course, a piece of haute couture. Each one is unique, unique, and therefore can only be sold once. It is also usually quite expensive. Chiu had to get his hands on it.

‘I discovered it later [my friend] Chiu told Insider. “I quickly learned that everything is fair in love and couture.”

Not every company can say that it makes haute couture. In France, it is regulated by the Ministry of Industry, which chooses which brands are true emblems of the rig.

Read more: Amid strange, costly pandemic purchases of wealthy children, from $ 1,000 Patagonia to $ 31.8 million T. rex

Chiu attended her first haute couture show at the age of 26 and clearly remembers it. She was bright-eyed and filled with excitement. “I was instantly transported to an era of ultimate luxury and refinement,” she said, “and I fell in love with these museum-worthy pieces of portable art.”

During the pandemic, Chiu said her methods of buying have not changed, but her perception of what it means to use luxury responsibly. She said she had a big incentive to spend money on brands that took a moral stance.

Chiu, for example, paid close attention when Burberry used its trench coat factories to make hospital dresses, and when Valentino and Balmain donated millions to the COVID-19 relief effort. She also looks at how companies are responding to the Black Lives Matter protests.

There are rules for this haute couture game

A typical, non-pandemic year where Chiu attends about 30 shows a year – or about 15 shows per fashion season. She usually buys something at every show and collects a collection that includes gowns, hoods, accessories and even shoes.

Photo by Marc Piasecki / Getty Images / Getty Images

Pieces of couture can easily cost more than $ 100,000 and Chiu said, without naming a price, that her most expensive pieces cost ‘more than the average cost of a home in the US’. That was more than $ 300,000 from the summer of 2020. It cost ‘less than a piece of Jeff Koons,’ “she explained – the most recent of those sold for only $ 91 million in public.

A glimpse of her jet-set lifestyle can be seen in her new Netflix show “Bling Empire” which premieres on January 15th. It features DJ Kim Lee, investor Kane Lim, and Jaime Xie, daughter of billionaire Fortinet founder Ken Xie.

Chiu is a producer of the program and told Insider that she wanted to show the journey of herself and her husband – with whom she founded Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery – in 2006 to balance Western expectations with Oriental 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 he came to the United States at the age of two.

‘Bling Empire’ will showcase the Chiu family as philanthropists, raising awareness for their favorite charities and organizations; as world travelers leading a jet-set life, and of course in much couture. “It was an amazing experience for me, full of laughter and tears,” Lee told Insider about her experience with the job, adding that Chiu ‘definitely knows how to have the best parties’.

Knowing how to have a good party is an important skill in the jet set. In fact, Chiu said that one of the main reasons why she buys haute couture is for events – weddings, red carpets, film festivals. However, all that changed with the pandemic. But let’s just pretend for a moment that this is the year 2019.

It would see Chiu in New York, London, Rome and Paris. It’s just the big fashion cities that do not include the travel 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

In general, according to Chiu, the experience of buying haute couture begins like this: every home offers a presentation, commonly known as a fashion show. From there, the game begins.

Customers of haute couture should be invited, as reported by Christina Binkley, The Wall Street Journal, and they are usually suggested by someone who knows someone who is well connected to a haute couture home.

During Fashion Week, these individuals may only book private appointments to get a second look at what was shown at the presentations.

‘Some homes will rent a model [to] “remodels’ the customer’s selected pieces,” Chiu said. In other circumstances, the designers meet with clients to discuss [their] inspiration and make personalized recommendations. ‘

Once the potential buyer chooses their favorite look, they can suggest further adjustments to the outfit.

After a deposit is made, the person waits six to 12 months until the piece is manufactured.

During this time, there are at least two to three accessories to make sure the look comes together as desired, Chiu said.

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

However, there are some rules for the game. For one, it’s a faux pas to ask about the price – or discount, for that matter. And sometimes fashion houses sell only one look per country. Chiu told Harper’s Bazaar that if she could not get an American as an outfit, she would try to buy a Taiwanese citizen, promising to wear the outfit only in that country.

Try to buy haute couture with morals

Before the pandemic, Chiu said she always tries to find a way to use fashion to highlight 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 that supports them both, which she said led to contributions to further research on AIDS, education and increased access to medicines for impoverished communities. .

Her Netflix program is also used to highlight some of her favorite charities and organizations, she said. The show developed in early 2018 and with the premiere is one of the few shows that had an all-Asian ensemble. Participants come from diverse cultural backgrounds, including Vietnamese, Singaporean and Korean.

Thanks to Christine Chiu

Chiu said that the original premise of the show has nothing to do with the display of wealth; rather, it was primarily about revealing the cultural pressures, morals, values, and expectations that Asians are often confronted with in the United States. However, this does not mean that prosperity will not be visible, even if the screens on the screen are very different from the reality that Chiu finds.

Crawled into Los Angeles, there are no sweatpants yet. Chiu said she buys sunglasses, bathing suit, sneakers and tracksuit. She will probably look at her program on the couch, like the rest of us, with high quality comfort clothing, sustainably available.

“After all,” she said. ‘The thought of running through Erewhon [Market] on platform Louboutins it’s a 2019 thing to tow a Himalayan Birkin. ‘