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SCMP Reporter

WHEN celebrated society beauty Tina Chow died of AIDS in January last year she acquired a posthumous fame that even her high profile glamorous lifestyle could not have guaranteed her.

      She became the first prominent woman to die of AIDS and to publicly announce she had contacted it through heterosexual sex.

  A brief fling with US actor Richard Gere had focused interest on her love life, but it was from a one night stand with Parisian socialite Kim d'Estainville in 1987 that she contracted the disease.

  But Chow will ultimately be remembered as a fashion icon.

  She was considered one of the best dressed women in the world, admired for her style and a fabulous collection of couture clothes which she amassed over many years.

  Not long after her death the collection was shown at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York in conjunction with the launch of the book Flair: Fashion Collected by Tina Chow.

  And on September 21, the better part of her collection - her vintage couture clothes - will be auctioned by Christie's in New York to raise money for the care of AIDS sufferers.

  More than 100 items from designers such as Fortuny, Balenciaga, Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel will be on offer and some of the world's best known designers of today are expected to bid.

  The most stunning is a domino, or hooded cape, from Fortuny.

  The pale pink silk velvet 1930s cape, reminiscent of an 18th century masked ball costume, is decorated in a blue, gold and silver Renaissance-inspired pattern, estimated to fetch between US$30,000 and US$40,000 (HK$232,500 and HK$310,000).

  Other highlights include a 1930s Fortuny evening coat of maroon silk faille, styled like an oriental carpet, with Coptic-inspired motif (estimated at US$12,000-US$15,000); a Schiaparelli cobalt blue bugle-beaded evening dress and jacket with a butterfly clasp inspired by Salvador Dali (US$4,000-US$6,000); and a 1946 Balenciaga capelette of black taffeta with textural horsehair lace embroidery (US$2,000-US$3,000).

  Chow's exotic looks - her father, Walter Lutz, was an American soldier and her mother, Mona Furuki, a Japanese - made her the most famous model in Japan in the '60s and ultimately one of their best-loved exports.

  In 1971, tired of the Japanese scene, she went to live in Paris, where her sister had gone to study earlier.

  There, through Antonio Lopez, the late illustrator who had used her as a model in Japan, Chow was introduced to the catwalk society, which included people like Grace Jones, Jerry Hall and Jessica Lange.

  It was through Lopez that she met Karl Lagerfeld who thought she was beautiful but too thin.

  Giorgio Armani also admired her innate elegance and said she did not need a designer to do anything for her.

  Chow met restaurateur Michael Chow, her husband-to-be, through her friend, designer Zandra Rhodes.

  He was at the top of the ''in'' crowd in London, a style guru.

  They hit it off immediately and married in 1972.

  The couple ran the fashionable and star-studded ''Mr Chow'' restaurants in London, New York and Beverly Hills.

  As hostess, Chow became a central figure in a number of social and artistic circles.

  Through Andy Warhol, who introduced her to the healing power of crystals, Chow designed her own line of jewellery: chunks of raw crystals encased in bamboo or precious material and hung from silken cords - something new in the early '80s.

  But it was a pink Fortuny gown, a present from her husband, an avid collector of art deco furniture, that inspired Chow to collect 20th century couture and accessories.

  Proceeds of the sales, expected to be in the vicinity of US$150,000 to US$180,000, will go to two AIDS-related charities: Tina's House, an AIDS hospice in Mexico, and Housing Works, a non-profit organisation providing housing and other services for homeless people living with AIDS and the HIV virus in New York.



Fabulous gowns recall fabled beauty