An Important Collection of Tina Chow Jewelry

This is the post for the blog that I have dreamt of writing and somehow it seems the dream has come true.  It also seems quite right that as I was looking at Fortuny dresses here in Venice similar to the pieces that Tina Chow collected and wore, I was purchasing an important collection of her jewelry.  

I am indebted to the knowledge of the owner of these pieces for helping me to understand her jewelry  with clarity, to learn the names of the pieces and for entrusting me with a part of Tina Chow's legacy that she has cared for since she originally bought the pieces.  I am also indebted to her for having the eye of a collector and for having chosen the best.  

I am still all goosebumply as I write this!

I have always thought that women of true style, those who go their own way, do what they want and then inspire other women and designers by the way they dress are not just simply women of fashion but women of thought and creativity.  Millicent Rogers ,one of the great style icons, not only dressed  well (to say the least!), she also created jewelry and collected indigenous art and left a museum of Native American Art in Taos, New Mexico.  Chessy Rayner another great woman of style was also a great interior designer.  

Tina Chow is still influencing designers and their collections.  Style.Com has written of her as a Style and a Beauty Icon.   But she is not defined by her collection of couture alone.  She is also known for the small collection of jewelry that she created.  Carine Roitfeld in  a recent Paris Vogue did a cover and editorial inspired by Tina and her jewelry.

Tina Chow was a perfectionist in creating her jewelry.  Every aspect of it.  From the silk cords to the boxes she put her pieces in.  I think because of the organic quality of her jewelry and the way that it feels when you wear a piece of hers - it is a sensuous experience, there is a feeling of beauty and serenity.  She used crystals which were intended to be "personal amulets and power pieces."  I know that when I wear my Tina Chow pieces I feel calm and somehow reassured.


The most iconic piece and the piece most associated with Tina Chow is the KYOTO bracelet.  This is the piece that she was most often photographed in.  Here is one of my favorite photos of Tina Chow.  

Her lips are signature red, the rest of her face sis almost bare, she has on a single crystal earring over a bare shoulder, a crystal ring and cuff and her Kyoto bracelet.  China Chow was recently photographed for The New York Times wearing her mother's Kyoto bracelet with amethyst pebbles inside it.


I am beyond thrilled to have a Tina Chow Kyoto bracelet which has never been available before with seven rose quartz pebbles inside it.  The pebbles make a very beautiful sound rustling inside the woven bamboo.  

The bracelet is signed T.C. and Shochikudo.  

Shouchikudou Kosuge was a Master craftsman of bamboo.  He started making pieces in bamboo at seven years old studying with his father.  His basket work is highly prized in Japan.  Besides crafting the bamboo for Tina Chow pieces, he also did a fantastic bamboo bodice for Issey Miyake in 1982.  This is amazing and I wonder if only one was produced?

Tina grew up surrounded by her parent's collection of bamboo pieces.  The Lutz Bamboo Collection  is  actually at the Denver Art Museum.  I think it is lovely that the art that must have surrounded Tina as she grew up was incorporated into her jewelry designs in a completely unique way.


Our Kyoto bracelet is bamboo with rose quartz pebbles.  Every aspect of the jewelry Tina Chow created was thoughtful and purposeful.  Rose quartz, besides being the stone that represents love, is healing, helping in matters of illness, fear and love.  This is what I meant when I wrote earlier that when you wear her jewelry, you feel reassured.  It is not just how good the piece physically feels in your hand or on your body but what it represents.

I will be adding more pieces this week!

Tina Chow Rose Quartz and Bamboo Kyoto Bracelet.