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Christine Chiu | Who What Wardrobes | Who What Wear
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May 1, 2025
Christine Chiu gives Who What Wear a tour of her world of haute couture and shares some of her rarest and most sentimental pieces. Watch above to see some of her luxurious items. Christine’s couture collection is housed in a secure facility with expert curation, temperature control and 24 hour security.
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I'm filming you, you're filming me
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Couture is my passion. Couture is a collection of the most brilliant minds in the world of fashion
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and it's a space where fashion designers get to be as fantastical, over-the-top, intricate
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and intimate with their materials and creation as ever, without any limit
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when price is not an object there are no ceilings on what they can create i personally have been
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collecting haute couture for over 10 years i think closer to 15 years now and with each year
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and each season my mind continues to be blown so one of the primary differences between ready to
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wear and haute couture is the exclusivity of it and that really has to do with the reproduction
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In Haute Couture, only one piece is made and one piece is made by hand
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I think on average, tens of thousands of hours goes into every single piece
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There isn't one second that I'm at Couture Week where I'm not learning something new about fashion history
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or about the designers or about even the sourcing of materials or the processes
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or the advancements of fashion technology. So we're just going to hop into my treasure trove of couture stories
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So this is an Idli Saab haute couture gown and of course it's beautiful and luxurious but the funny story behind this is I was having dinner with Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla at Buckingham Palace and the conservative gown that I had planned to wear got stuck at customs
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So the only other thing I had in my luggage was this really risque, deep V gown with a high slit, like higher than the bone slit
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And it was either this or naked. So I decided to wear this
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I broke all of the rules in Buckingham Palace. There are rules on modesty
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It was very naughty. And of course, I did not know they had placed me next to Prince Charles
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So that was quite embarrassing. This is an Armani Privé piece, and I love this piece
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This probably is my favorite eau couture piece because it's a jumpsuit and it has pockets
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and I love anything functional and practical. If you look at every detail
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every embellishment was done by hand, and it's so delightful and fun and comfortable
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That's the most important thing is comfort. I often get asked, do you prefer French couture houses
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or Italian couture houses? And that's a very tricky question, but I have to say that the Italian couture houses
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come with the Italian family hospitality. And that extra level of warmth
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definitely makes things and the experience more fun. This is my next couture piece
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And this is a Dolce & Gabbana Altamoda couture dress that was exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
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I loaned it to them for their Heavenly Bodies exhibition It comes with a cape and also I call it a Pope hat but I was corrected It a bishop not a Pope Overly ambitious This is a Versace Atelier haute couture gown that has very special
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memories for me of the Cannes Film Festival because I had it essentially fitted during my
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time on a boat in the French Riviera. It's a very dreamy time and a romantic time I had with my
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husband and the entire team came on board and the boat was rocky and everyone was with pins and
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needles trying to stitch me in. This is the grand dame of Haute Couture, Chanel Haute Couture. Chanel
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Haute Couture was my very first Couture purchase. I started my fascination, love, passion collection
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of Eau Couture with Chanel. This is from the first collection after Carl passed away. I love this
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because I've had the same seamstress at Chanel Eau Couture for a very long time and she knows that I
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like to break the rules once in a while and I like to add my own special touches. So after the house
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approves of a look, she always goes in and helps me add something fun. This look was shown in the
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show, but I like sparkles. So she added these little sparkle details throughout and you can
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see them everywhere. And another fun fact with Eau Couture is that everything is custom. So
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believe it or not, our bodies are not symmetrical. So my right arm is thicker than my left arm
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And so, um, with pieces that are basically perfected to your body, like this sleeve is
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bigger than the sleeve. So if you try to wear this, it would not fit you. This is a recent
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Valentino Haute Couture slip dress. And although it looks very kind of demure and simple on the
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hanger, it has a big impact because of the craftsmanship and the elegance it carries
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And that's what I love about Valentino Haute Couture. By the way, I love the entire team at
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Valentino Haute Couture. They are, how do I describe them? They're like family. Katia
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who's the director of Haute Couture, she, I wore this at the most recent, um, Couture Week and
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in the middle of backstage fittings and all of the craziness, because they were going to have
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their show in a couple of hours, she actually came into my hotel room and helped me fit into this
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This comes with a very iconic ostrich hat, which requires really a guide when you're walking, and these luxurious gloves
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There is a history on this particular leather, which is no longer available
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The House of Valentino Couture saved it just for this look and it fits me like a glove
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This piece is a fun lesson in the social warfare of Eau Couture
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This is a Jean Valli Eau Couture gown You know in Eau Couture the special part of it is there should only be one owner of one piece and they never make the same piece twice So this was the first time when I
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bought a piece, and I also saw a celebrity wear it. So it was kind of an awkward moment, but
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fortunately, the celebrity who wore it is someone I really look up to and respect and admire. So
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it made the sting just a little less hurtful. This is a Dolce & Gabbana Altamoda piece again
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So many things to say about this, but I really respect the craftsmanship of this. This is, I mean
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if you've ever tried to hand embroider anything, you can appreciate the thousands, tens of thousands
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of hours that went into this piece. But the funny part of this piece is, and I actually didn't bring
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it and I'm really surprised I'm going to tell you this. It comes with like these hot shorts
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like boy shorts. At this time, I had lost so much weight that all of the fat in my butt went away
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And so it just didn't look so great. So in a very delicate fashion, the Dolce & Gabbana team asked
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since they were making everything custom, if I would like some padding in my hot shorts
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and of course I said yes so when I was wearing this I had basically like a
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Kardashian butt and I really enjoyed it. This is another Chanel eau couture set
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and this set is particularly special to me and I'm getting goosebumps just
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thinking about it because Chanel eau couture has been a house that I've been
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with for a very long time collecting from and the team I've known for a very
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long time. So we've gone through all of life's kind of journeys together. As some of you may know
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I had 10 years of difficulties in trying to have a child. And in those 10 years, I went through
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seven rounds of IVF. And for those of you who maybe have gone through infertility treatments
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you know that it does a number to your body and obviously your mind. And particularly
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your body swells, contracts. It just does weird stuff to the shape and weight. And Chanel Eau
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Couture was so patient with me. They actually made this look four times because my weight fluctuated
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four times. Allegedly, they lost money on this look, but they gained a lifelong loyal customer
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So, and friend. So when I look at this piece, I remember my struggles in infertility and ultimately the triumph with baby G
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This is another Chanel eau couture piece. I just love the sparkles
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Chanel's sofa, actually every house is so great that they like to give you surprise gifts along the way
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And Chanel made these custom sandals for me that lace up. Chanel works with this house called Massaro
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who is basically the industry standard for shoes. So anyway, Chanel gifted me, you might die
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but those sandals are 7 euros And they gifted me a pair when I bought this dress which was so kind And this is another Armani Priv look and I love this piece because I actually hate the color purple
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Growing up, my mom was fascinated and obsessed with purple, so I lived in a purple house with purple rug
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with purple furniture, with purple wallpaper, and she wore purple head to toe
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So I hate the color purple. But I trusted the house and they said Armani Privé
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And they said that this look really should be done in purple
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And so we went with it. Since my mother has passed away, when I look at this piece, I think of her
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And I'm really pleased that I went forward with purple. This is another Armani Privé gown that I love in this mint green
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And the best part of this gown is that it comes with a little bow
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No, it does not go in the head. It actually is like a little shawl
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So you wear it behind your back. You wear it like a little shawl like this
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You know, just casual. Okay, so let's hop into the accessories. These boots are super special
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because when I first started my journey with Haute Couture, I couldn't get over how I could possibly spend 150, 200, 250
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and up 1,000 euros on a dress. And so I had to start smaller and kind of tiptoe my way in
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So these guys are less than that. They're all made to measure
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so they measure your calves and your ankles. It's sometimes quite embarrassing, but you do it and it fits really well
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And of course, they're so comfortable to walk in because it's made to accommodate every curvature and oddity in your foot
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I love collecting Chanel specialty clutches and bags. So I have a bunch
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This I love in particular because storytelling and any form of storytelling is a passion of mine
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This reminds me why I love fashion, because it tells great stories
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Also, sometimes people don't realize that couture houses have wonderful accessories
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One season, I didn't find a gown that spoke to me, but I found a bunch of accessories that
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I loved. So that year I gifted all of my girlfriends haute couture clutches, gloves, and bracelets
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from Armani Privé. So these are some of the bracelets that I gifted my friends
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This you might remember from Bling Empire season one. This is not couture, but there was a moment
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where I said me and my couture are leaving. And so gotta go, me and my couture are leaving
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