Like other female artists who refused to provide context to their life or their life’s work, one is then forced to read that artist’s life through their work but also, in the case of Tina Chow, her performance and presence in the endless steam of images. That there is a seemingly endless proliferation of photographs of Chow and yet very little writing about her or even from her could, in itself, be considered a way to “read” Chow. In every image Chow appears beautiful, perfectly presented, glowing, in fact, regardless of where on the compendium of time the images occur: during her marriage to Chow when she was staying up all night, drinking with celebrities, later when she left him and began studying Tibetan Buddhism and holistic healing methods, or even later, ill with AIDS-in all of the photographs, she radiates. Instead, what one finds is a proliferation of images: Chow modeling, Chow at her husband‘s downtown restaurant, entertaining guest celebrities Chow posing over and over. Aside from Flair and the New York Magazine article, there are no texts or articles, or at least nothing I could find using library catalogues and online searches. Essentially the catalogue for an exhibit of Chow’s collection held at the Fashion Institute of Technology in March of 1992, the book has become something of a fetish, a relic, for Chow fans. The text is a photographic compendium of items from Chow’s Couture collection. The one book “about” Tina Chow is titled Flair: Fashion Collected by Tina Chow. The more time I spent collecting data on her upbringing, career, marriage, and other statistics, the more I recognized that even these solid and substantial facts did not speak to the essence. Even here, in these flashes, she remains enigmatic, something memorable and, in fact life changing, that occurs but then vanishes. Lots of blog posts by admirers and references to Chow by designers and other celebrities. Aside from one article by Michael Gross in New York Magazine, I had not been able to find anything of substance. I knew that very little has been written about Chow’s life and work. A quality perhaps not unlike the one Chow possessed-that something between words, visceral-that drew people to her. What exactly was it about Chow, or her life, that drew me to her? It was something ephemeral, inexplicable. When asked why, I was never able to pinpoint the reason. I have been obsessed with Tina Chow for years. In 1985, she was named on the International Best Dressed List.I was exuberant when I first imagined writing this essay. Chow was also noted for her androgynous Eton crop hairstyle which she had cut at a New York barbershop and styled with Dippity Do. She routinely paired inexpensive items with high fashion pieces and mixed feminine and masculine styles simultaneously.
Laurent and Issey Miyake.Ĭhow was cited by fashion magazines for her unique style and her collection of Mariano Fortuny dresses. She was also the muse of designers Yves St. She was drawn by illustrator Antonio Lopez. During her modeling career she was photographed by Helmut Newton, Cecil Beaton and Arthur Elgort, among others. Both sisters were later discovered by a modeling agent and became the faces of Japanese cosmetic line Shiseido and featured prominently in their ad campaigns from the early 1970s. In the mid-1960s, the family moved from Ohio to Japan, where Chow attended Sophia University. Chow's sister is artist, designer, and actress Adelle Lutz. Walter Lutz met Mona Furuki on Christmas Day 1945, while serving with the United States Army in occupied Japan. Her mother, Mona Furuki, was Japanese, while her father, Walter Edmund Lutz (1910-2003), was an American of German descent. Chow restaurant chain.Ĭhow was born Bettina Louise Lutz in Lakeview, Ohio. She was the second wife of restaurateur Michael Chow, the founder and owner of the Mr. Tina Chow (born Bettina Louise Lutz Ap– January 24, 1992) was an American model and jewelry designer who was considered an influential fashion icon of the 1970s and 1980s.
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