Tina Leung’s house is actually a closet tucked right into a excessive rise in New York’s monetary district, although maybe not within the sense that you simply’re pondering. (For NYC requirements, it’s truly fairly sizable.) I imply extra in order that her closet has taken over her house. Ground-to-ceiling cabinets line the partitions of the entryway and function a divider between kitchen and lounge. Stacked upon which you’ll discover a assortment of footwear any correct trend closet would envy. “I can go bare should you actually drive me to, however I have to put on sneakers,” she says. It’s arduous to give attention to only one pair, however instantly, my eye caught sight of Loewe’s squashed balloon heels, Prada’s iconic flame sandals, and Bottega Veneta’s signature inexperienced hue—coating greater than only one pair.
The influencer and Bling Empire: New York star purposefully looked for a one-and-a-half-bedroom house—the latter usually used, on this metropolis, for workplace house or a roommate keen to sacrifice livable quarters for possible lease. That spare room she transformed into her precise closet. There, she shops a few of her garments, purses, and, after all, much more sneakers. (This is not even all of it—the remainder sits in a storage unit in Hong Kong). A Comme des Garçons coat match for a girlier Joan of Arc perches demurely on the top of 1 roll-in garment rack. The {hardware} from a row of Hermès Kelly luggage glints beneath the overhead lighting. This type of assortment (and its domination over Leung’s house) would possibly perplex the widespread viewer, however the type maven has cultivated a way of life that perpetuates the set-up. Her house serves as a crash pad and storage facility for the influencer who has primarily turned worldwide fashion-week-hopping right into a profession.
“There’s nothing like going to a trend present,” says Leung, recounting Gucci’s takeover of Hollywood Boulevard in November of 2021. “The excitement, the vitality beforehand, throughout, after which afterwards—photographs can not convey. Bryan [Bryanboy] and I have been taking a look at one another with tears in our eyes like, ‘How is that this our life?’” She goes on to reminisce about Valentino’s Haute Couture present on Rome’s Spanish Steps, then one other Gucci present at a fort in Puglia. “The one at that different fort with the choir, in France. Wow,” she muses, laughing because the exhibits run collectively in her reminiscence. “I simply really feel so fortunate to be given these alternatives.
Born in Hong Kong, Leung, 40, moved to California on the age of two, then again once more at 11. The aptitude for the visually eccentric developed early. She notes toying together with her prep college uniform, climbing up the skirt and letting the polo hold outsized. It was in college (Leung attended Bates School in Maine then transferred to the College of Bristol) that she began consuming trend as artwork. “Each month I used to be simply so excited to run to the newsstands,” she says. “The very first thing I might do was flip to the again [of the magazine] the place the editorials are. I simply needed to devour them—these actually thick ones with principally editorials like One other Journal.” It was the aspect of fantasy, she says, that captivated her.
Leung fast ascertained a styling certificates from FIT post-graduation. After hopping round project-based jobs within the realm of styling, editorial, even visible merchandising in New York and Hong Kong—”I can’t be tied down. I am a contract woman”—she launched a weblog, Tina Lovesto catalog her trade adventures for her household, composed principally of attorneys, actual property brokers, and funding bankers. The visitors constructed steadily till in the future Dior requested to fly her to Paris to cowl their present. “As soon as I did my first Paris Style Week, I used to be hooked. I have been going ever since,” she says. The budding on-line character shortly added Milan to that circuit. New York and London’s trend weeks adopted shortly after. Then, the mens’ weeks, dispatched for GQ Chinaand high fashion. “At one level, I used to be mainly by no means residence,” she says. Leung has cultivated relationships with the designers and their groups. She’s made associates with fellow front-row attendees, turning the method of being seated right into a type of reunion. “Now, I do not know after I’ll ever cease.”
This and extra you’ll see in her new actuality present Bling Empire: New York on Netflix that captures Leung and a bunch of rich Asian and Asian-Individuals galavant about New York Metropolis (and the world). The primary episode follows Leung to Paris Haute Couture week (followers do not fret—she made it to the Chanel present this high fashion season). The media frenzy outdoors the present is obvious. “Tina! Tina!” photographers yell as their cameras flash. “I typically surprise, is that my identify that they’re screaming? Or is there one other Tina round?” she laughs. This spectacle outdoors trend exhibits wasn’t at all times the case although. “In 2005, New York Style Week, I keep in mind this man, only one, hopping round taking photographs. I am like, ‘Huh.’” He stayed quiet and nonchalantly photographed from afar. “Then, I feel again now, and I notice that it was Scott.” She’s referring to Scott Schuman of The Sartorialist, who helped to usher on this fascination with road type images in tandem with the rise of trend bloggers, higher recognized in 2023 as influencers. Now, Leung stands amidst a swarm of celebrities and influencers having their picture snapped earlier than getting into every venue, usually clad in a borrowed look from the designer. “The pure goal of me attending is to be photographed in that look,” she states matter-of-factly.
Although she’s not at all times wearing a head-to-toe runway look, Leung retains that very same reverence for the dramatic regardless of the ensemble. “Miuccia Prada, Alessandro Michele, Glenn Martens, Jonathan Anderson, Pierpaolo [Picciolo]after all,” the sartorial magpie lists the designers she feels seize her type ethos, lots of whom she is aware of personally. “My aesthetic is so completely different on daily basis, on a regular basis.” The style trade favourite is repeatedly drawn to glamour, fantasy, creativity. In her closet, this manifests as items like a crystal-embellished robe by buddy and fellow “Slaysian” Laura Kim, co-designer at Oscar de la Renta. On her head, it means mermaid inexperienced locks, the latest in a string of daring hair selections. This transfer positively performs into her outfit selections—Leung admits she’s been staying away from pink these days. “I make sure that the entire thing works,” Leung says of her bigger than life ensembles. “In my eyes, anyway.”