Eagle-eyed Bravo viewers could know him as the person behind three completely different “Vanderpump Guidelines” engagement rings, or because the beleaguered greatest buddy of the disgraced actuality TV villain Tom Sandoval. However when Kyle Chan began promoting handmade jewellery on the Downtown Los Angeles Artwork Stroll in 2010, he had no concept that he would sooner or later parlay his small stall right into a luxurious jewellery enterprise well-known for its connection to the world of actuality stars.

Mr. Chan immigrated from Hong Kong to the USA when he was 13, and began making jewellery after taking a category in highschool. “I fell in love with it, however I simply didn’t have the cash to proceed, so I began all types of strange jobs,” Mr. Chan mentioned in a telephone interview. “I used to be a waiter. I used to be working at an airline. I did hair and make-up.”

Ultimately, he scored a job at a small jewellery boutique, which he managed for seven years earlier than shifting into wholesale. Then, within the early 2010s, he met Kyle Richards, the longtime star of the Bravo actuality present “The Actual Housewives of Beverly Hills.” It was then that his profession actually took off.

“She and her 4 daughters would at all times go to the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market, in order that’s how I met her,” Mr. Chan mentioned. “She was very sort, and he or she would purchase my jewellery, regardless that I’d insist I’d give it to her free of charge. However she mentioned, ‘No, no, no, I’d like to purchase it, I need to present assist.’”

Ms. Richards began carrying his items on the present, which premiered in October 2010, and posting about them to her tens of millions of followers. When he graduated from making silver and gold-filled items into extra luxurious fare, she started carrying his designs at her since-shuttered Beverly Hills boutique, Kyle by Alene Too.

Miley Cyrus, who Mr. Chan mentioned was a frequent customer at one of many small boutiques the place his items have been bought, additionally wore a few of his designs. “I informed the gross sales woman, ‘At any time when a celeb comes by, no matter they need, they’ll take it, proper?’” Mr. Chan mentioned. “However they mentioned that Miley insisted on paying for every little thing.”

Since then, Mr. Chan’s work has been bought at greater than 300 retail boutiques worldwide, and he’s appeared on two Bravo exhibits and a Netflix present referred to as “Bling Empire.” In 2021, he opened his flagship boutique, Kyle Chan Design, in Beverly Grove. Celebrities like Taylor Swift, Girl Gaga and Beyoncé have worn his jewellery, and he designed a pair of earrings and a necklace worn by Emma Stone in “La La Land.”

A lot of Mr. Chan’s preliminary success may be attributed to his connection to the truth TV world. After assembly Ms. Richards, he bumped into the forged of “Vanderpump Guidelines” on the opening of Pump Restaurant in West Hollywood in 2014. The present, which adopted a forged of outrageously behaved 20-something servers at Sur, a restaurant owned by Lisa Vanderpump, identified for her position in “Actual Housewives of Beverly Hills,” had simply hit the air.

“I informed them, ‘For those who want jewellery for Season 2, I may also help,’” he mentioned. “So they’d put on a couple of of my items. Again then, it was nothing costly.”

When members of the “Vanderpump Guidelines” forged began getting engaged, Mr. Chan designed customized rings for 2 of its largest {couples}: Tom Schwartz and Katie Maloney, and Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright. (Each {couples} have since filed for divorce.) On a latest episode of the “Vanderpump Guidelines” spinoff “The Valley,” Mr. Chan was revealed to be the jeweler behind the forged member Kristen Doute’s engagement ring.

Although they started as skilled connections, many Bravo stars have turn into like household, Mr. Chan mentioned. He mentioned he was notably shut with Luke Broderick, Ms. Doute’s fiancé and co-star on “The Valley,” in addition to with Mr. Sandoval, a “Vanderpump Guidelines” star who, in 2023, was revealed to have cheated on his girlfriend with a mutual buddy in what was shortly nicknamed “Scandoval.” When Mr. Sandoval fell out with a lot of his longtime mates over the affair, Mr. Chan was regularly filmed exhibiting as much as his events and enjoying the position of supportive bestie.

“Individuals will at all times simply go, ‘Why is he in every single place?’” Mr. Chan mentioned, referring to his actuality TV ubiquity. “And I’m like, ‘I simply occur to be mates with them.’”

Along with his actuality TV connections, Mr. Chan’s distinctive strategy to advertising has allowed him to face out within the old style world of knickknack gross sales.

“I’ve this imaginative and prescient of celebrity-driven advertising, as a result of I consider in advertising,” Mr. Chan mentioned. “Once I was working at retail and wholesale, I noticed that a whole lot of jewellery shops labored their entire lives struggling and had no identification as a result of they simply wanted to get by. Anytime when there’s an financial disaster or something, jewellery shops are at all times the primary to endure.”

Mr. Chan didn’t need his enterprise to endure an identical destiny, and noticed his movie star clients as a novel strategy to develop his empire. His strategy to luxurious jewellery is loud, versus the quiet luxurious pattern of latest years, and on his web site, you’ll be able to store for items by which movie star has worn them, together with Mariah Carey, Paris Hilton and Nicki Minaj. His subsequent venture, a bedazzled bottle of whiskey he might be releasing in collaboration with the model Gold Bar, is equally flashy.

Regardless of the entire movie star connections, Mr. Chan believes his success may be largely attributed to not letting Hollywood change him.

“All these years, I simply select to remain true to myself and be real and folks can really feel it and it’s contagious,” he mentioned. “Once I see particular person, I gather them, and I maintain them in my orbit.”