Olympia Christou, daughter of Australian jean designer Bettina Liano, stepped out onto the Sydney social scene at a Calvin Klein Denim event on Thursday night, wearing a sheer lingerie top with no bra.
Christou, who is a model and fashion designer in her own right, paired the see-through top with a pair of low-rise Calvin Klein jeans, reminiscent of the iconic jeans her mother sold under her own label in the 1990s and 2000s.
Olympia is one of two daughters Bettina shares with her ex-husband, Roy Christou. At the event she celebrated the announcement of season six of Real Housewives of Melbourne alongside her aunt, Gina Liano, who stars in the reality series. Real Housewives of Melbourne is the Australian instalment of the international reality franchise that follows the lives of Melbourne socialites, and Gina Liano has been one of its best known cast members.
Olympia's own career in fashion
Olympia made her runway debut in 2018 at Australian Fashion Week, one of the country's major annual showcases for local designers, held in Sydney. She went on to co-found the upcycled streetwear label Hydra Opia in 2021 with designer Karla Laidlaw.
Who is Bettina Liano
Bettina, 60, was famous during the turn of the century for the iconic jeans she sold through her eponymous label. She got her start in the 1980s, opening Sempre L'Unico in Toorak Village, Chapel Street and the Melbourne CBD with her mother and two sisters. Chapel Street, running through Melbourne's Prahran and South Yarra, is one of the city's best known shopping and fashion strips.
She married Roy at the age of 23, and the pair later launched her jeans label in 1989. At its peak, the label ran eight stores across Australia, mostly centred around Melbourne and Sydney.
The label's collapse
The label later went into administration. Bettina initially recovered the company in 2012, after it first went into administration in 2011, by striking a licensing deal with Apparel Group in Sydney.
However, in February 2013 she closed all her Australian stores and opened one in Soho, in lower Manhattan, an area known for its high end boutiques and fashion retailers, with the company going into administration again that same year. The Italian-Australian designer was forced to put her 24-year-old jeans brand into liquidation, with Apparel Group taking over the Bettina Liano trademark.
She said at the time that a manufacturing delay had left her with no stock to sell for summer 2013, meaning her company was over by January 2014. Bettina was also ordered to pay more than $150,000 in bad debts to Apparel Group in May that year. Apparel Group also took over the trademark of her spin-off brands, O Jeans and T by Bettina Liano.
A new label and famous fans
The designer later launched another eponymous label, called BYBL (By Bettina Liano), in 2015. "They may have bought the name but they haven't bought the woman," she said at the time. "I lost a lot of things but I still have my arms, my legs, my brain. I can still design and that's all I ever really wanted to do."
At the height of its popularity, Bettina Liano jeans were worn by stars including Jennifer Hawkins, Ruby Rose, Helena Christensen, Elle Macpherson and Liz Hurley.
