Anyone who follows style star Tina Leung on social media has seen her high-glam lifestyle, jetting off to attend the hottest parties and runway shows around the world (she’s partnered with Chanel, Valentino and Loewe to name just a few). Now, she’s showing fans even more of her fabulous life by starring on the Netflix franchise, Bling Empire: New York. After three successful seasons of the show Bling Empire, which follows wealthy Asian-American socialites in L.A., the series is hitting the East coast with the new Bling Empire: New York edition.
The cast also includes Dorothy Wang, who appeared in season 2 of Bling Empire, Richard Chang, Lynn Ban, Blake Abbie, Stephen Hung and Deborah Hung. When GRAZIA USA caught up with Leung she says she initially got a DM from Jeff Jenkins Productions, which produced Bling Empire, and she took a meeting but “didn’t think much of it at first,” she shares about her decision to join the cast. “I was just like, ‘Sure, why not?'”
“Everything in my life I’m kind of like, ‘sure why not?’ I listened to my gut feelings first and foremost, and then from there we did an audition tape, a recorded Zoom,” she explains. Leung had meetings with Jenkins and after waiting for the spin-off to finally get picked up by Netflix, she hit the ground running. Filming started right away, as the crew wanted to capture scenes while Leung attended New York Fashion Week shows, and in hindsight, Leung was glad the process played out the way that it did.
“I didn’t have much time to think about it, which I guess is kind of great, because it just makes you jump in. I’ve never done anything like this before,” Leung says. “My background is in styling, so I’ve never put myself out there that much, and I’m naturally an introvert as well. So all these things were racing through my head, but when something scares me, I kind of just force myself to do it. I think the short time frame that I had from signing and starting to shoot, which was like one day or something crazy, kind of helped me jump in.”
Once she got into the swing of things, the best part of filming was hanging with the cast, many of whom she knew before cameras starts rolling. And, of course, her other favorite aspect was dressing up in stellar looks. “I love putting together outfits so I think that was the best part,” Leung says.
As for the most challenging part, the stylist says it was keeping up her energy level during filming. “I’m still myself, but then when the camera is in front of you, you kind of put a bit more energy into it — at least 15% [more] and I get drained a lot. I think for an introvert, that’s just naturally what happens when they spend time with people — and talking kind of drains me.”
Even though Leung is known for her styling and fashion sense, she initially studied film, television and theater in school. But she didn’t pursue a career in acting “because I didn’t want to kiss strangers at the time. I just wanted to have my boyfriend and I was just as interested in fashion.”
She studied at FIT in N.Y.C. and moved to Hong Kong where she styled for every major magazine in the region, while launching her beloved blog Tina Loves. “It’s interesting how I keep trying to get back into styling but I haven’t had a lot of time for it lately. But I love it so I’m trying to do that and do all these background [projects] but the universe keeps somehow guiding me more, or giving me more opportunities, [to be] in front of camera than behind it. So I am just taking it. I’m basically putting my seat belt on and just sitting and enjoying the ride.”
She may not be styling as much as she would like, but she has plenty of projects in the works, including House of Slay, a digital series tackling anti-Asian sentiment that she created along with Prabal Gurung, Phillip Lim, Laura Kim and Ezra J. William. They also happened to win a CFDA Award for Positive Social Influence last year, which Leung says “didn’t even seem real.”
“When we walked backstage to do the photocall, we were each handed our own award and seeing each person holding their own and having our names engraved in it, was when it hit me. I whispered to Ezra, ‘We have to remember this moment’ because we’re not designers like the others, and in no other world would this happen.”
Leung may soon win her own CFDA Award in a design category though, because she hopes to evolve tinaloves.com to include collaborations with friends and do one-off limited-edition items, as well as launch her own champagne brand down the line.
For the style star, TV is a logical next step after she’s shared her life with fans on her blog, then through Instagram and TikTok. “I think this is kind of the next Instagram, you know? The next way of using media to tell stories,” Leung says about reality TV. “I feel like there aren’t too many shows out there that really portray fashion in a real way.”
At the time of the interview, she hadn’t yet watched the season, but couldn’t wait for the show to debut. “I am just ready. This isn’t the most visually appealing thought, but the show feels like a pimple that’s so juicy and ready to pop — I’m just like, pop it already.”
Bling Empire: New York, premieres on Netflix on Jan. 20.
