Greatest Hits

Netflix's hit series Bling Empire: New York may have aired its last episode, but its glamorous star Lynn Ban will go on. The Singaporean designer shares more about her creative pursuits and why, just like wearing vintage fashion, being yourself will never go out of style

- Pameyla Cambe

“I ’m not the shy, wallflower type,” Lynn Ban says while getting her make‑up done for this photo shoot. Almost anybody else would have been intimidated by the amount of black eyeliner and eyeshadow that is being meticulously applied to her face, but Ban merely asks for more.

This just about sums up the Singaporean jewellery designer’s approach to glamour, which had its share of the spotlight in Bling Empire: New York, the spin‑off series to Netflix’s hit reality television show Bling Empire. Both offer a look inside the glitzy lives of wealthy Asian residents, in New York and

Los Angeles respectively, and reveal their material indulgences, be it in the form of multimillion‑dollar mansions, private jets or, in Ban’s case, designer outfits.

“I think my wardrobe was its own character on the show,” says Ban, laughing. Indeed, the 50‑year‑old could not have made her reality television debut in a more spectacular fashion. In the show’s first episode, she arrives to a party dressed in a black leather dress covered in needle‑thin metal spikes, an avant‑garde creation from Japanese fashion label Noir Kei Ninomiya.