Tina Chow (born Bettina Louise Lutz, April 18, 1950 – January 24, 1992) was an American model and jewelry designer who was considered an influential fashion icon of the 1970s and 1980s. She was the second wife of restaurateur Michael Chow, the founder and owner of the

Mr. Chow Mr Chow is a series of upscale Chinese restaurants founded by British-Chinese restaurateur Michael Chow. There are locations in London, New York, Beverly Hills, Miami, and Las Vegas. History In the 1960s, London was experiencing a cultural rev ...

restaurant chain.

Early life

Chow was born Bettina Louise Lutz in

Lakewood, Ohio Lakewood is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, on the southern shore of Lake Erie. Established in 1889, it is one of Cleveland's historical streetcar suburbs and part of the Greater Cleveland Metropolitan Area. The population was ...

. Her mother, Mona Furuki, was

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, while her father, Walter Edmund Lutz (1910–2003), was an American of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

descent. Walter Lutz met Mona Furuki on Christmas Day 1945, while serving with the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

occupied Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United State ...

. Chow's sister is artist, designer and actress Adelle Lutz.

Career

Modeling

In the mid-1960s, the family moved from Ohio to Japan, where Chow attended

Sophia University Sophia University (Japanese: 上智大学, ''Jōchi Daigaku''; Latin: ''Universitas Sedis Sapientiae'') is a private research university in Japan. Sophia is one of the three ''Sōkeijōchi'' (早慶上智) private universities, a group of the to ...

. Both sisters were later discovered by a modeling agent and became the faces of Japanese cosmetic line

Shiseido is a Japanese multinational cosmetic company founded in Tokyo, Japan in 1872. Its product categories consist of: skin care, makeup, body care, hair care, and fragrances. The company is one of the oldest cosmetic companies in the world ...

and featured prominently in their ad campaigns from the early 1970s. During her modeling career she was photographed by

Helmut Newton Helmut Newton (born Helmut Neustädter; 31 October 192023 January 2004) was a German-Australian photographer. The ''New York Times'' described him as a "prolific, widely imitated fashion photographer whose provocative, erotically charged black-a ...

Cecil Beaton Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar–winning stage and costume designer for films and the t ...

and

Arthur Elgort Arthur Elgort (born June 8, 1940) is an American fashion photographer best known for his work with ''Vogue'' magazine. Life and career Elgort was born in Brooklyn, to Sophie (née Didimamoff) and Harry Elgort (April 10, 1908 – October 23, 1998) ...

, among others. She was drawn by illustrator Antonio Lopez and painted by

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

. She was also the muse of designers Yves St. Laurent and

Issey Miyake was a Japanese fashion designer. He was known for his technology-driven clothing designs, exhibitions and fragrances, such as '' L'eau d'Issey'', which became his best-known product. Life and career Miyake was born on 22 April 1938 in Hiroshi ...

. Chow was cited by fashion magazines for her unique style and her collection of Mariano Fortuny dresses. She routinely paired inexpensive items with high fashion pieces and mixed feminine and masculine styles simultaneously. Chow was also noted for her

androgynous Androgyny is the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to biological sex, gender identity, or gender expression. When ''androgyny'' refers to mixed biological sex characteristics in ...

Eton crop hairstyle which she had cut at a New York barbershop and styled with Dippity Do. In 1985, she was named on the

International Best Dressed List The International Best-Dressed Hall of Fame List was founded by fashionista Eleanor Lambert in 1940 as an attempt to boost the reputation of American fashion at the time. The American magazine ''Vanity Fair'' is currently in charge of the List a ...

Jewelry designing

During the late 1980s, Tina Chow designed and produced several collections of jewelry. Using rock crystal, gold, silver, wood, bamboo, and silk cording. In 1987, the first collection was sold at

Bergdorf Goodman Bergdorf Goodman Inc. is a luxury department store based on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York. The company was founded in 1899 by Herman Bergdorf and was later owned and managed by Edwin Goodman, and later his son, Andrew Goodman. ...

in New York, Maxfield's in Los Angeles, at Ultimo in Chicago, and later (from 1988) at Gallerie Naila Monbrison in Paris. Perhaps one of the best known pieces in the collection is the "Kyoto Bracelet," which is a woven bamboo bangle which encases seven rough rock crystals or

rose quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

in their natural form. The crystals, left loose inside the bamboo casing, rattle around as the wearer moves about. For the bamboo wrapping and basketry work in the collection Chow enlisted Kosuge Shochikudo, one of Japan's master craftsmen in the art of bamboo. In April 1988, designer

Calvin Klein Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he also has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, an ...

accessorized the showing of his Fall/Winter 1988/89 collection with Chow's jewelry.

Personal life

In 1972, Tina married Michael Chow, who owns the

restaurant chain. The Chows had two children, a daughter

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

(born 1974) and a son Maximillian (born 1978). China is a model and an actress. The couple divorced in November 1989. Chow was Talking Heads frontman David Byrne's sister-in-law, through his 1987-2004 marriage to Adelle Lutz.

Later years and death

After her marriage to Michael Chow ended, Tina Chow began to drift away from the party lifestyle for which the couple had become known. She became an

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

activist after having lost many friends to the disease. In June 1989, Chow was diagnosed with AIDS. She had contracted HIV in late 1985 after having an affair with French aristocrat Kim d'Estainville who died of AIDS in January 1990. She made her diagnosis public in an effort to educate others and continued working as an AIDS activist and with AIDS charities, including Project Angel Food. Chow continued designing jewelry. Chow moved to California, where she chose to treat her illness with meditation and a

macrobiotic diet A macrobiotic diet (or macrobiotics) is a fad diet based on ideas about types of food drawn from Zen Buddhism. The diet tries to balance the supposed yin and yang elements of food and cookware. Major principles of macrobiotic diets are to reduce ...

. On January 24, 1992, she died of complications from AIDS at her home in Pacific Palisades at the age of 41.

References

External links

Tina Chow Style Article

The Influential Legacy of Tina Chow
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chow, Tina 1950 births 1992 deaths AIDS-related deaths in California Female models from Ohio American jewelry designers American people of German descent American models of Japanese descent HIV/AIDS activists People from Logan County, Ohio 20th-century American women Women jewellers