Tina Chow was an internationally renowned model

Model (person)

A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....

 and a fashion icon in the 1980s. She is also a member of the International Best Dressed List

International Best Dressed List

The International Best Dressed List was founded by fashionista Eleanor Lambert in 1940 as an attempt to boost the reputation of American fashion at the time.People who have been on the list include from A to Z:-The International Hall of Fame: Women:...

 since 1985.

Chow was born Bettina Louise Lutz; in Lakeview, Ohio. Her father, Walter Edmund Lutz, was an American of German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 descent, while her mother, Mona Lutz (née Furuki), was Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese. Walter Lutz met Mona Furuki on Christmas day 1945, while serving with the United States Army in occupied Japan. Chow's sister is actress Adelle "Bonnie" Lutz

Adelle Lutz

Adelle Lutz is a costume designer, model and actress.Lutz is a daughter of a Japanese mother, Mona Lutz and a German father, Walter E. Lutz. She was the wife of David Byrne, but divorced in 2004 with a daughter, Malu Valentine...

.

In 1972, Tina married Michael Chow, who owns the Mr. Chow

Mr. Chow

Mr. Chow is an upscale Chinese restaurant chain founded by restaurateur Michael Chow.-History:Michael Chow, son of Chinese Peking Opera Grand Master, Zhou Xinfang, opened the first Mr. Chow in Knightbridge, London on February 14, 1968. A Beverly Hills location soon followed in 1974 and Midtown New...

 restaurant chain.
During her model career she was photographed by Cecil Beaton

Cecil Beaton

Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre...

 and Arthur Elgort

Arthur Elgort

Arthur Elgort in New York) is a fashion photographer, who has become especially known for his work as a Vogue photographer.-Life and career:...

.

They have two children, a daughter named China

China Chow

China Chow is a British actress and model.-Personal life:Chow was born in London, England to restaurateur Michael Chow and late model/designer Tina Chow. She is of Chinese, Japanese, German, and Scottish ancestry. Chow has a brother who is three years younger. Her aunt is actress and one-time Bond...

 and son Maximillian. China, born in 1974, is a model and an actress. Maximillian was born in 1978.

Michael and Tina Chow were among the most famous New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 celebrities, making many friends among the Big Apple's art world, including Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...

, Keith Haring

Keith Haring

Keith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.-Early life:...

, Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist. His career in art began as a graffiti artist in New York City in the late 1970s, and in the 1980s produced Neo-expressionist painting.-Early life:...

, Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel

Julian Schnabel is an American artist and filmmaker. In the 1980s, Schnabel received international media attention for his "plate paintings"—large-scale paintings set on broken ceramic plates....

, Mary Boone

Mary Boone

Mary Boone is the owner and director of the Mary Boone Gallery and was instrumental in the New York art market of the 1980s...

, and Henry Geldzahler

Henry Geldzahler

Henry Geldzahler was a curator of contemporary art in the late 20th century, as well as a modern art art historian and art critic...

. She was also a friend of Paloma Picasso

Paloma Picasso

Anne Paloma Picasso known professionally as Paloma Picasso, is a French/Spanish fashion designer and businesswoman, best known for her jewelry designs and signature perfumes. She is the youngest daughter of famed 20th-century artist Pablo Picasso and painter and writer Françoise Gilot...

 and Manolo Blahnik

Manolo Blahnik

Manuel "Manolo" Blahnik Rodríguez CBE, , is a Spanish fashion designer and founder of the self-named, high-end shoe brand.-Biography:Born to a Czech father and a Spanish mother and born and raised in the Canary Islands , Blahnik graduated from the University of Geneva in 1965 and studied art in Paris...

.
She was drawn by illustrator Antonio Lopez

Antonio Lopez (illustrator)

Antonio Lopez was a fashion illustrator whose work appeared in such publications as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Interview and The New York Times. Several books collecting his illustrations have been published...

.
During an estrangement from Chow, she had affairs with Richard Gere

Richard Gere

Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...

 and a bisexual French fashion arbiter Kim d’Estainville. From d’Estainville, she contracted HIV

HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...

, becoming one of the first heterosexual women to become infected with the disease that would eventually end her life.

Chow died of AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

 on 24 January 1992, at the age of 41. She spent her last days at her home in Pacific Palisades, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

Her couture collection was sold in 1993 by Christie's

Christie's

Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...

in New York.