“My First Thought Is, How Do I Honor Karl?”: Christine Chiu Preps for Her Met Gala Debut

“I believe Karl can be dissatisfied,” Chiu says, referencing the previous artistic director of Chanel and Fendi, Karl Lagerfeld.
After we join through Zoom, each Chiu and I are aligned in our selection of sequins: she in a structured overcoat (Chanel), me in a backless butterfly high (Amazon). The distinction is stark, however navigating contradictions is nothing new for Chiu. With out earlier expertise within the leisure trade, she produced and starred in Netflix’s Bling Empire, the primary actuality present to characteristic an completely Asian core forged. She is the co-owner and cofounder of two aesthetic surgical clinics, Beverly Hills Plastic Surgical procedure and the Regenerative and Anti-aging Institute of Beverly Hills. Her Dancing With the Stars bio (she appeared on season 30 in 2021) acknowledges her as one of many world’s youngest high fashion collectors, a notable feat contemplating its clientele often discover their foothold in center age. Chiu, alternatively, was in her early 20s when she started her assortment.
Now, Chiu is just not solely a high fashion mainstay, however a robust pressure within the style group. In June, she’ll host the West Coast Associates of the Costume Institute dinner, and he or she’s served on the boards of the Los Angeles County Museum of Artwork’s Costume Council and the Museum of Up to date Artwork’s Contemporaries. She often receives unique invitations from luxurious style homes—even visiting landmarks like Louis Vuitton’s residence in Asnières-sur-Seine and Coco Chanel’s Parisian house. Her relationship with Chanel is especially particular, as she commissions a number of made-to-order items that take between six to 9 months to create. Eagerly, she follows the atelier’s progress through the model’s app for couture shoppers. Generally, the seamstress, having labored along with her for over 10 years, will shock her, utilizing metallic thread or attaching crystals. Over Zoom, Chiu unveils considered one of her extra reasonably priced clothes, a “much less labor-intensive” crepe-like skirt in an eggshell cream. She approximates couture’s beginning value at 150,000 euros, which is round $166,000.
Monday will mark her Met Gala debut, the place Chiu’s love of Lagerfeld-led style homes will probably be on full show. She’s going to donate as much as 10 couture items from her archive to the Costume Institute and will probably be rewearing considered one of her most treasured Chanel couture robes for the event, full with a 65-pound cape. It’s the primary time the robe will depart her temperature-controlled closet since she wore it to fulfill then Prince Charles, and he or she chosen it tonight to honor Lagerfeld. It’s no Amazon sequin butterfly high, however it should do.
Within the days main as much as the Met Gala, Vainness Honest spoke with Chiu about her relationship with style, her intensive high fashion assortment, and what it’s wish to see her late good friend Lagerfeld honored in such a manner.
The beneath interview has been edited and condensed for readability.
Vainness Honest: We all know now that each fashionista has an origin story, what’s yours?
I grew up very a lot starved from style. My father was an enormous collector of Issey Miyake, my mom collected Chanel. However being an solely baby, they wished me to be very studious in order that they saved me at faculties that solely had uniforms. So I lived in a really black and white world, whereas I attempted to play within the shades of grey. I used to be nearly suspended for taking my uniforms to an area tailor and having them reconfigure my skirts or my pants. It was actually in school, in Malibu, the place I actually received to play. I approached style as a option to perceive tradition, and group. I really feel like by style – as with every different conventional types of artwork – it retains the dialog going and going.
It’s cultural commentary.
Precisely. It’s influenced by the politics and popular culture of the time. We’re in a woke period now, proper? So many issues that they had been capable of get away with again then, we are able to’t now — with fur being on the high of the record, which was a lot part of Karl at Fendi. I believe style is my encyclopedia, my entry into the world.
That will need to have been an isolating outlook in California within the early 2000s, when style was decreased to Juicy tracksuits and Uggs. How did you enter the couture world?
I started amassing in my early 20s, and was famous on the time because the youngest couture collector. I used to be surrounded with ladies who had been way more well-collected and I admired them. I wished to be taught from the homes and the older collectors. I learn the applications of each present. It was the unofficial style college that my dad and mom would’ve by no means allowed me to attend.

Do it is advisable to be a really seen purchaser first and then you definitely’re approached? How does it work?
I used to be very vocal about my curiosity. In fact I used to be shopping for lots of ready-to-wear, however as a consequence of my loud curiosity, I might ask questions on a regular basis. I used to be invited to lots of totally different occasions and the place executives from the homes would all be current. As an alternative of chatting with different socialites, I might beeline for the design workforce. I felt like I used to be a style journalist. So then I used to be invited to Coco Chanel’s house, to Louis Vuitton’s residence, to the atelier, to the factories. I met the craftsmen and artisans. They saved feeding me. 

Was there any stigma being American, slightly a European shopper? It appears as if People might be thought of gaudy, or vulgar in these circles. How does that play out in actual time?
Oh I received all of it, all the above. As a result of not solely was I an American, I used to be born in Taiwan and technically I might be thought of an Asian shopper, which was very new. I keep in mind the large shift from Europeans in attendance at couture reveals to Asians. I’ve seen the waves from Russians to Chinese language. There was additionally a shift from editors to influencers — I keep in mind that very distinctively. I believe I hit all the oddities as a couture shopper. I did not examine off any packing containers as a result of I used to be youthful. It’s taken them a decade for them to get used to me.
What’s it like to fulfill somebody like Karl Lagerfeld, a designer whose fingerprints are seen throughout your entire style trade?
I am not a fangirl. I like the reference to individuals, so if I do not discover a second the place I can have an impactful sort of dialog or a second to attach, I would slightly simply let it move. It was exhausting to take a seat down and have a real dialog with Karl, however I did host a number of issues for the Home of Chanel and for him, particularly. As soon as I used to be internet hosting a Chanel style present and invited , I keep in mind her saying, ‘My daughter’s such an enormous fan of Chanel, is it okay if she takes my seat?’ So I’ve this photograph of very younger Lily Collins sitting within the entrance row with myself. Quick ahead, she turned a muse.

It should really feel extremely particular to be so deeply concerned with a home of this caliber.
The home of Chanel for me means a lot due to the those who I’ve met there. Certainly one of my couture clothes was remade 4 instances. My weight and my form and my dimension simply went all around the charts. And they also saved remaking the gown and remaking the gown, however by the fittings and the method, they had been there for me. It has a lot which means for me as a result of that was the assist that the home gave me throughout my darkest instances.

Karl Lagerfeld has been famously controversial all through his profession, how do you navigate that as a shopper? Do you ever must make a aware resolution of separating the artwork from the artist whenever you store?
It’s all the time a consideration to devour in line with my values. It’s robust as a result of generally the designer is just not aligned with the company or the model. So then you definitely blame it on the designer, or the corporate . It is so robust. Lots of the homes that I patronize and assist, I do know the groups of individuals, I do know their hobbies. I do know what they’re doing on the weekends. We have change into actually shut. It is very robust since you care about them and their artwork and their livelihood.
How do you describe Chanel couture output proper now?
It’s so fascinating. They now have an app for all of their shoppers that updates you in your items. It’s like placing your pet in doggy daycare, they take photos every step of the best way. ‘That is what we’re engaged on now.’ ‘This is how your piece is coming alongside.’
Stroll me by your couture buying course of, how has it developed?
I keep in mind in the course of the pandemic when everybody scaled again buying, I centered my {dollars} on the homes that had been giving again and doing one thing to assist employees and worth their groups. As to , I believe I am just a little little bit of a style chameleon. I additionally swung the pendulum. I went from impulsive to tremendous calculated as if I had been amassing like modern artwork, like what is going to fill the void in my assortment, what does this characterize?
Are you able to consider that is your first Met?
In any case of those years of being concerned, this will probably be my very first Met Gala. I have been invited a number of instances, however I wasn’t capable of attend. I had IVF difficulties one 12 months, I used to be on bedrest one 12 months, after which I gave start, I believe the 12 months that I loaned a chunk to Heavenly Our bodies .
How did you strategy the theme?
My first thought is, How do I honor Karl? Once I first was invited, I used to be going to work with the couture workforce. They’d uploaded into my app each single Karl assortment. From the time you began with Chanel, each assortment, each look into my little app. I used to be engaged on a really particular piece recreating an archival piece after wanting by each assortment of Karl’s — however due to the lead time, I missed the deadline date with Chanel. So I am going to have the ability to rewear considered one of my robes in a manner that honors Karl. I’m fretting about lugging a 65-pound cape up these stairs. We’ve got engineers on it, who’ve measurements of the steps. However I get to rewear a ravishing robe from Karl’s assortment that I wore for my very first assembly with Prince Charles, quickly to be King Charles.
Can you combine your items into your day by day wardrobe? I think about the temptation to lock them away for worry of devaluing them, like a luxurious automotive.
Completely. A lot of the homes, if not all, take such satisfaction in these items. They’re like a part of their household. So say a thread turns into unfastened. You lose a button, one thing will get tarnished, you ship it again, and so they’ll repair it.
Like a lifetime guarantee?
A lifetime guarantee. These homes need you to get pleasure from your items. It is truly very unhappy to simply put a chunk away. The entire level of the piece is to refresh reminiscences, I’ve so many tales with each single piece, that retains the designer and their imaginative and prescient alive.