The Transformation Of Jaime Xie From Bling Empire

Netflix's reality series Bling Empire has been a phenomenal success for the streaming platform since its release in January 2021. Its ensemble cast of uber-rich young Asian-Americans living la vida glamorous in Los Angeles has been lauded for being, as Harper's Bazaar put it, "the first reality-TV show with an all-Asian cast."

Many of the show's storylines feature snapshots of how these wealthy Angelinos spend their millions — or rather, billions — from lavish parties to multi-figure shopping sprees. As Harper's Bazaar also observed, the show's main characters are individuals making a splash in the world of beauty and fashion — from plastic surgeon to the stars, Christine Chiu, to model Kevin Kreider, among others. 

One such key player is fashion influencer Jaime Xie, whose father runs a billion-dollar tech company. Her Instagram consists largely of Xie posing in the latest edgy and trendy outfit. Keep reading to find out how Xie developed her love of, and her knack for, stylistic tastemaking!

Jaime Xie went from equestrian to fashion maverick as a teen

According to Vogue, Jaime Xie has been a fixture in the front rows of European couture shows long before Bling Empire's debut, thanks to her family's wealth and connections. "Some people think fashion week is too hectic, but I find it exhilarating," Xie shared with the magazine in her January 2021 profile. She added that after attending her very first fashion show, "I knew I wanted to go every season and every year."

Although Xie was raised without an awareness of the possibilities high fashion offered one's style — she was a champion equestrian in her teens (pictured below) and grew up wearing "Abercrombie, Hollister, all the usual things the kids in my middle school were buying" — she became obsessed after conducting independent research on runway couture through sites like Style.com. Xie ended up wearing Charlotte Olympia shoes ("where the heel was like a little cage," she said) to her eighth-grade graduation. "Those were the first shoes I thought were wearable art," she told the magazine.

In 2014, Xie began using both Instagram and YouTube to share her shopping and self-styling habits. Xie explained to Vogue her reasoning for using both platforms, saying, "Instagram allows you to curate... but there is only so much you can convey in a still image." 

With over 400 thousand followers on Instagram and 63.4 thousand subscribers on her YouTube channel, Xie's status as an influencer is likely to only keep soaring after Bling Empire's impact in the world of reality TV.