Eagle-eyed Bravo viewers may know him as the man behind three different “Vanderpump Rules” engagement rings, or as the beleaguered best friend of the disgraced reality TV villain Tom Sandoval. But when Kyle Chan started selling handmade jewelry at the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk in 2010, he had no idea that he would one day parlay his small stall into a luxury jewelry business famous for its connection to the world of reality stars.
Mr. Chan immigrated from Hong Kong to the United States when he was 13, and started making jewelry after taking a class in high school. “I fell in love with it, but I just didn’t have the money to continue, so I started all kinds of odd jobs,” Mr. Chan said in a phone interview. “I was a waiter. I was working at an airline. I did hair and makeup.”
Eventually, he scored a job at a small jewelry boutique, which he managed for seven years before moving into wholesale. Then, in the early 2010s, he met Kyle Richards, the longtime star of the Bravo reality show “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” It was then that his career really took off.
“She and her four daughters would always go to the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market, so that’s how I met her,” Mr. Chan said. “She was very kind, and she would buy my jewelry, even though I would insist I’d give it to her for free. But she said, ‘No, no, no, I’d like to buy it, I want to show support.’”
Ms. Richards started wearing his pieces on the show, which premiered in October 2010, and posting about them to her millions of followers. When he graduated from making silver and gold-filled pieces into more luxury fare, she began carrying his designs at her since-shuttered Beverly Hills boutique, Kyle by Alene Too.
Miley Cyrus, who Mr. Chan said was a frequent visitor at one of the small boutiques where his pieces were sold, also wore some of his designs. “I told the sales girl, ‘Whenever a celebrity comes by, whatever they want, they can take it, right?’” Mr. Chan said. “But they said that Miley insisted on paying for everything.”
Since then, Mr. Chan’s work has been sold at more than 300 retail boutiques worldwide, and he’s appeared on two Bravo shows and a Netflix show called “Bling Empire.” In 2021, he opened his flagship boutique, Kyle Chan Design, in Beverly Grove. Celebrities like Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé have worn his jewelry, and he designed a pair of earrings and a necklace worn by Emma Stone in “La La Land.”
Much of Mr. Chan’s initial success can be attributed to his connection to the reality TV world. After meeting Ms. Richards, he ran into the cast of “Vanderpump Rules” at the opening of Pump Restaurant in West Hollywood in 2014. The show, which followed a cast of outrageously behaved 20-something servers at Sur, a restaurant owned by Lisa Vanderpump, known for her role in “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” had just hit the air.
“I told them, ‘If you need jewelry for Season 2, I can help,’” he said. “So they would wear a few of my pieces. Back then, it was nothing expensive.”
When members of the “Vanderpump Rules” cast started getting engaged, Mr. Chan designed custom rings for two of its biggest couples: Tom Schwartz and Katie Maloney, and Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright. (Both couples have since filed for divorce.) On a recent episode of the “Vanderpump Rules” spinoff “The Valley,” Mr. Chan was revealed to be the jeweler behind the cast member Kristen Doute’s engagement ring.
Though they began as professional connections, many Bravo stars have become like family, Mr. Chan said. He said he was particularly close with Luke Broderick, Ms. Doute’s fiancé and co-star on “The Valley,” as well as with Mr. Sandoval, a “Vanderpump Rules” star who, in 2023, was revealed to have cheated on his girlfriend with a mutual friend in what was quickly nicknamed “Scandoval.” When Mr. Sandoval fell out with many of his longtime friends over the affair, Mr. Chan was frequently filmed showing up to his parties and playing the role of supportive bestie.
“People will always just go, ‘Why is he everywhere?’” Mr. Chan said, referring to his reality TV ubiquity. “And I’m like, ‘I just happen to be friends with them.’”
In addition to his reality TV connections, Mr. Chan’s unique approach to marketing has allowed him to stand out in the old-fashioned world of jewelry sales.
“I have this vision of celebrity-driven marketing, because I believe in marketing,” Mr. Chan said. “When I was working at retail and wholesale, I realized that a lot of jewelry stores worked their whole lives struggling and had no identity because they just needed to get by. Anytime when there’s an economic crisis or anything, jewelry stores are always the first to suffer.”
Mr. Chan did not want his business to endure a similar fate, and saw his celebrity customers as a unique way to grow his empire. His approach to luxury jewelry is loud, as opposed to the quiet luxury trend of recent years, and on his website, you can shop for pieces by which celebrity has worn them, including Mariah Carey, Paris Hilton and Nicki Minaj. His next project, a bedazzled bottle of whiskey he will be releasing in collaboration with the brand Gold Bar, is equally flashy.
Despite all of the celebrity connections, Mr. Chan believes his success can be largely attributed to not letting Hollywood change him.
“All these years, I just choose to stay true to myself and be genuine and people can feel it and it’s contagious,” he said. “When I see a good person, I collect them, and I keep them in my orbit.”
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