Bettina Louise Chow, 41; Model, Designer, Restaurateur

Bettina Louise Chow, a model, dress designer, restaurateur and jewelry artist credited with putting crystals into the forefront of fashion, has died of the complications of AIDS at her Pacific Palisades home. She was 41.

Relatives and friends who were with her when she died on Friday reported her death during the weekend.

A native of Lakewood, Ohio, Mrs. Chow--known professionally as Tina Chow--began her fashion career as a teen-ager when she became a model for a Japanese cosmetics company. Her parents lived in Tokyo and she was educated there. She quickly became a favorite of such photographers as Cecil Beaton.

She later turned to design with high-priced jewelry creations for major lines.

In the 1970s, she married restaurateur Michael Chow and helped him operate Mr. Chow’s restaurant in London. They later opened branches in New York and Beverly Hills.

She became a fixture of the Manhattan social circuit, but in the past few years had expressed concern about an indulgent lifestyle.

“For years I subsisted on a diet of espresso and champagne,” she told the Chicago Tribune in 1988. “Now I don’t drink. I lost several friends to AIDS, and I felt my life slipping away while I continued to party.

“The fashion industry and the arts have been hit so hard by illness; many people are paying more attention to just sticking around.”

She had worked with AIDS-support organizations and had gone public with her illness, which she said was the result of heterosexual contact.

She is survived by her former husband; by a daughter and son, China and Maximillian Chow, both of Los Angeles; her parents, Mona and Walter Lutz, also of Los Angeles, and a sister, Adelle Lutz of New York.