🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐
When the Bling Empire franchise made its way to the city that never sleeps, the NYC cast proved just as over-the-top and glamorous as you’d expect. In Bling Empire: New York’s Season 1, Dorothy Wang and Deborah Hung clash time and time again, Tina Leung confronts some of her trauma head-on on a glitzy Bahamas girls trip, Vika Abbyaeva rejects her longtime boyfriend Richard Chang’s marriage proposal… But through it all, everyone sticks together — while rocking countless immaculate outfits that likely cost more than down payments on a home. So what have they been up to since filming stopped?
“I literally started filming [Bling Empire: New York] the day I moved,” Dorothy tells Tudum. “So I didn’t really get to settle in.” Since then, the socialite and LA native has been acclimating to life in the Big Apple. “I really have just been adjusting to the city and just exploring new restaurants, going to different shows, hanging out and just having really the best time,” Dorothy says.
She’s also been traveling with her bestie, fashion stylist Tina. In December, the duo hopped down to Miami to party it up at Art Basel. “We went to the Valentino party together, the Prada party together… and it’s so fun. We’re just enjoying life,” Dorothy says.
Coincidentally, Dorothy’s best frenemy, Deborah, was also at Art Basel with her husband, Stephen. After partying in Miami, Deborah and Stephen went to Qatar to take in the FIFA World Cup, then took a jaunt to Dubai, where they celebrated the holidays and Deborah’s birthday.
After finishing grad school at Columbia University, the burgeoning influencer has been basking in postgrad life, spending time in Thailand and Singapore. Jury’s out on if she’s changed her mind and decided to move back to Thailand to be near her mom and dad — or if she’s sticking with NYC for good.
Couture-draped influencer Tina spends much of Season 1 sorting through personal traumas, and has since been filling her time with nonstop work and travel. In addition to her trip with Dorothy to Miami, Tina says she attended “all the fashion weeks” and hasn’t had a moment to herself. “There was only one 10-day stretch where I didn’t have to work,” she says.
When we last see Lynn, she’s telling her husband of 27 years, Jett, that she refuses to move to LA with him. Now, the jewelry and fashion designer is recommitting to her business. “I’ve been working on relaunching my jewelry,” she says. “I paused my business with COVID… but now I’m relaunching, designing some custom pieces for some artists that we work with.”
Magazine editor Blake is upping his game in the publishing industry. “We launched two issues of A Magazine, created this year after we stopped filming,” he says. The magazine, which selects a different curator from the fashion world for each issue, has collaborated with luxury brands like Marni and Erdem. But it’s not all work and no play; Blake took some time away to visit his native Canada. “I spent the summer traveling in the mountains in Vancouver,” he says.
Shooting Bling Empire: New York wasn’t easy on everyone, especially self-proclaimed introvert Vika and medical firm CGO Richard. During the show, Dorothy and Lynn accuse Richard of controlling Vika, and later Vika tells him she isn’t ready to get engaged. But the two are still going strong, despite everything. “Filming was a whirlwind. It’s something that — I don’t care what you do, how comfortable you are — no one can prepare you for,” Richard tells Tudum. Vika wholeheartedly agrees. “Filming a show that’s going to be on global TV was completely out of my comfort zone,” she says.
Since then, the handsome couple has traveled a bit, but for the most part have been enjoying life away from the cameras. “When we finished, I think it was a relief to go back to normalcy — sit in our own apartment, sit in our underwear, watch Netflix, hang out with our friends, see family,” Richard says. “It’s felt nice,” Vika says.
As for what’s next, Vika — a data analyst in the tech industry — is figuring out her career. “I’m looking for a transition,” she says. “I want to explore my creative side.”
