CRYSTAL MU TAIWAN
If there’s a maxim Crystal Mu swears by, it’s that “Cashmere just makes everything better.” The 38-year-old Taiwanese beauty should know. She moved to Vancouver, Canada, in her early twenties to study English at the University of British Columbia and had to get used to sub-zero temperatures. She quickly learnt to layer up with cosy, premium wool garments—a style she continues to flaunt today back in balmier Taipei.
Bitter winters enhanced, not tainted, her innate sense of style and beauty. In 1999, Crystal won the Miss Chinese Vancouver Pageant, the annual beauty competition organised by Canadian-Cantonese broadcast channel Fairchild TV to select the city’s representative for the Hong Kong-based Miss Chinese International Pageant. She was second runner-up in the latter and has been in the limelight ever since. She has hosted TV shows and modelled, become a regular fixture on Taipei’s social scene, and is one of Taiwan’s most admired public figures for her fashion savvy.
“With her stunning figure, Crystal can pull off any kind of style,” says Taiwan Tatler vice editor-in-chief Tracy Huang. “She always looks amazing. Not to mention she’s a joy to talk to: she’s smart, informed and deeply involved with the community. That, to us, is the quintessence of style.”
Besides her public role, in recent years Crystal has reinvented herself as an author, publishing two bestselling books: Toffy’s Diary, about her pet, and a short stories collection, Those Who Have Seen Love, the rights of which have been purchased by a Taiwanese TV network for a future series. Crystal is also an active champion of animal rights.