Culture, California and Chan Luu: Designing a Palisades Sanctuary

By DAYNA DRUM | Reporter

Chan Luu has always been good with her hands, whether they are flying across the keys of a piano or crafting jewelry pieces for an A-list celebrity crowd.

Luu has handcrafted an international fashion empire that continues to expand, evolve and set trends. Among many other developments in Luu’s namesake company, a Santa Monica flagship store is set to open in early May, showcasing Luu’s entire collection.

CREATING A DESIGNER 

As a young girl in South Vietnam, Luu knew she was destined to design and create beautiful things. In her native seaside town Nha Trang she would gather seashells at the beach and create jewelry with them.

“Early on in my life I was already emotionally affected by form, shape, colors and textures,” Luu told the Palisadian-Post in the living room of her hillside home in the Huntington. 

As the Vietnam War raged on, Luu’s siblings had already departed to the United States. It was always part of her parents’ plan for their children to be educated in America, but now it was also for their safety. So before the tail end of the war, a 19-year-old Luu took her turn and headed to Massachusetts to study business administration at Boston University.

The transition wasn’t easy. She was alone and suffering from a Bostonian culture shock. Luu had been to America before, but the New England atmosphere was very different than what she had seen previously.

Accustomed to the tropical climate of Vietnam, the Boston winters were especially rough. But despite the harsh seasons of the East Coast, Luu said she is glad for the experience. The school town feel of Boston made the city a good place to be for a young person.

With the completion of her bachelor’s degree, Luu decided to head for warmer weather and landed in Los Angeles. While LA’s fashion industry was part of the reason for her cross-country move, Luu mostly credits the sunshine.

After a short stint working for a swimsuit company, Luu attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising to study fashion design. After her second degree was completed, Luu spent a few years as a fashion buyer. But Luu was ready for more.

The time came in 1983 when Luu opened her own retail boutique in Palos Verdes, giving her the opportunity to piece together different brands and begin selling some of her original creations.

Ten years went by and Luu hit a plateau.

“I’m a creative person, I needed to go further,” Luu said in a confident tone.

It took a bad ski accident and bed confinement to get the creative energy flowing again. Luu’s boredom drove her to take out the spoils of her previous travels—beading and fabric from European markets—and begin piecing things together.

She discovered the true potential of her creations when a stylist approached her to have Jennifer Aniston wear one of Luu’s necklaces—a hand-painted seashell on a leather cord. Pictures soon began circulating on the Internet of Aniston wearing the necklace during Milan Fashion Week and responses to the design flowed in. She knew it was time for yet another transition.

PALISADIAN SANCTUARY

Luu and her then-husband moved to Rustic Canyon 15 years ago seeking a change from Palos Verdes. The diversity of the Palisades community is what Luu enjoys most, she said. With many residents being in the entertainment industry, Luu considers her neighbors interesting and unique.

Now Luu lives in the Huntington in a modern chic home that overlooks Rustic Canyon and has an uninhibited view of the ocean. The home was designed by the same architects that are also designing her new Santa Monica store.

Being close to nature and the clean ocean air is important to Luu and touches of this love are evident all over her simplistic yet cozy home. Floor-to-ceiling windows that open up to transform Luu’s living room into an open-air space allow the designer to connect with nature.

Luu’s six-acre farm on the Hawaiian island of Kauai also provides a space for the businesswoman to escape. Gardening is another one of Luu’s hands-on passions. She barters with her neighbors, trading vegetables for fish or other commodities. It’s a simple life, far removed from her busy career in LA.

But her Palisades home is still a sanctuary in its own right. Wearing loose, comfortable clothing, Luu has a relaxed air about her during a visit by the Post. It’s easy to see that the successful entrepreneur is in her true element. While the designer is clearly driven and ambitious, she has a sincere and calm demeanor.

Luu spends a great deal of time traveling and brings home pieces of each culture she visits. Looking around her home she explains there is a story behind each item, including the paintings she’s painted and the pottery she has molded.

“I look at every corner of my house and I know where I was, what I was doing then. So that’s what my life is about…my life is about my story,” Luu said thoughtfully.

No matter which part of the world she visits, coming home to her two dogs, Henry and Benji, is where Luu loves to be.

LUU GOES INTERNATIONAL

The Chan Luu brand now sells in the U.S., Japan, Canada and Europe. From her downtown LA headquarters, Luu runs Chan Luu U.S., encompassing Canada and Europe, while her partner is in charge of their market in Asia.

The company now has factories in India and Vietnam and the products remain completely handcrafted. Luu believes when things are handmade they achieve a certain personality that is not achievable with machines.

After focusing on e-commerce for several years, the company wants to connect with its clientele.

“We decided to have a flagship store so that people have a connection with our product and they could see a complete Chan Luu vision,” Luu explained of the store that opens Friday, May 6.

The Santa Monica store, located in Santa Monica Place, will have Luu’s complete collection including apparel, jewelry and home items. Each product reflects the ancient craft of various cultures from around the world. Carrying on cultural traditions is an important aspect that gets designed into Luu’s products, all the while being paired with a California flair.

“Our product is contemporary, but we also have a history, we always have a relationship with the past,” she said.

Not only does the company strive to have a relationship with history, but also with the present. Through Chan Luu’s Ethical Fashion International (EFI) program, local artisans in Kenya and Haiti sell their handcrafted jewelry in partnership with the Chan Luu brand. EFI has given jobs to over a thousand artists in Naroibi, Kenya. But it isn’t a handout, the designer clarified. The motto of EFI is, “No charity, just work.” The artisans’ products are sold on Luu’s website and they are taught how to create a sustainable commerce and a global business.

As an advocate against breast cancer and animal cruelty, Luu finds opportunities to give back when she can. Most recently, Luu is creating a collection to be sold in conjunction with “The Last Animals,” a documentary depicting the reality and horrors of animal poaching. Luu plans to donate 25 percent of the collection’s proceeds to support the project and to support the wild park rangers who work to prevent poaching.

“Sometimes we don’t do things for money,” Luu said.