Chrome Hearts’ Journey From LA Secret to Global Giant
How the brand went from the Sex Pistols to the Rolling Stones to Drake.
The 2010s saw American brands jump to the forefront of style like never before. While there’s always been a few names scattered across the fashion landscape—from Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan to Marc Jacobs and Tom Ford—a genuine constellation of American fashion designers, brands and labels have ascended to mainstream attention in just the last few years, often in concert with one another. Some of them rose to prominence through their proximity to burgeoning movements in rap and hip-hop, particularly Supreme and Hood By Air. Others rose through their association with Kanye West and Virgil Abloh (Heron Preston and Matthew Williams, among others).
In the midst of this sea change, however, another American label has erupted into a worldwide phenomenon. Only the thing is, it’s been around for decades: Chrome Hearts. Though the brand quietly carved a lane for itself in the past 30 years, the family-run label acquired a whole new salience in the 2010s by dint of association with the New American Guard.
As Chrome Hearts continues to assert its influential point of view, we take a closer look at the label’s journey, charting its rise from LA’s best-kept style secret to global domination.
Chrome Hearts is Founded
Chrome Hearts was founded in 1988 in Los Angeles, California by Richard Stark, John Bowman and master silversmith Leonard Kamhout. Steeped in biker-gang and rock ‘n’ roll culture, the three originally started the business to produce leather jackets and sterling silver jewelry better suited to their personal tastes. Motifs such as crosses and fleur-de-lis defined the brand’s early aesthetic, as did leather jackets adorned with silver hardware and decorative details. Production was (and still is) handled almost exclusively in the City of Angels.
Just a year after the brand’s launch, Chrome Hearts was tapped to create costumes for the comedy-horror Chopper Chicks in Zombietown; one of the film’s actresses would soon introduce her then-boyfriend, Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols to the brand. Co-signs from Mötley Crüe and Guns ‘n’ Roses came soon after, helping Chrome Hearts establish itself as a go-to label for premium hair-metal attire. In 1992, Chrome Hearts cemented its status as more than just the flavor of the month, winning the prestigious Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Award (Stark was presented the award by Cher, who was dressed in a full Chrome Hearts ensemble).
Like other rising American designers, however, Stark didn’t consider himself a designer, a position he maintained throughout the ’90s, eschewing traditional fashion calendar schedules and producing whatever interested his own personal tastes. Nonetheless, not long after receiving the CFDA Award, Stark bought Bowman and Kamhout out. Since then, Chrome Hearts has been helmed by Stark, his wife Laurie Lynn, and increasingly, their three children.
Chrome Hearts Gets the Rei Kawakubo Co-Sign
Whether Stark wanted to be considered a fashion designer or not ultimately proved irrelevant. In 1996, the brand opened its first flagship store in New York City, followed by a Tokyo flagship in 1999 and a Los Angeles flagship on Melrose Avenue in 2000. Like many brands experiencing success in the East, Chrome Hearts’ decision to open up shop in Japan ahead of its native Los Angeles involved Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo.
Kawakubo showcased a selection of Chrome Hearts pieces in the windows of her CDG Aoyama store in the early ’90s, catapulting the brand to the center of Japanese style. Chrome Hearts’ recognizable silverwork could soon be spotted in fashion magazines and on the streets of Harajuku, while the brand’s gothic design language influenced a range of the era’s most prominent designers. Fans of visual kei, a subculture that draws inspiration from glam rock, in particular, immersed themselves in Chrome Hearts’ dark themes by adorning their outfits with the brand’s signature silver jewelry. Further adding to the brand’s allure in the East, Stark told the Japan Times, “Chrome Hearts has nothing to do with the fashion world. We don’t have any seasons. I make things when I want to make them, because I want to make them.”
Collaboration After Collaboration After Collaboration
From then on, Chrome Hearts began having regular encounters with iconic names in global style, including Yves Saint Laurent (2004), BAPE (2009), Baccarat (2010) and Rick Owens (2010). In 2007, the mutual respect observed between Stark and Kawakubo came full circle with the debut of Chrome Hearts x Comme des Garçons, a collaboration consisting of pendants and garments available at—where else?—Kawakubo’s Dover Street Market.
Yet despite the brand’s infiltration into the upper echelons of fashion, one of Chrome Hearts’ most notorious collaborative projects remains its ongoing partnership with The Rolling Stones. In 2002, Chrome Hearts produced a collection of jewelry, clothing and accessories built around the band’s Tongue & Lips logo. The collaboration has since periodically returned, such as in 2011 and in 2016, when Chrome Hearts remixed the collection with a number of 1-of-1 products, including a diamond-encrusted belt. Beyond the credibility that comes with working directly with one of the most legendary bands of all time, Chrome Hearts x Rolling Stones reflected the label’s rock ‘n’ roll roots, while demonstrating through a handful of products just how far the homegrown brand had come.
From Rock to Hip-Hop
Into the 2010s, the Starks’ three children—the eldest Jesse Jo and the younger twins, Kristian and Frankie Belle—began to implement their own ideas of where the label was heading. At the same time, the aesthetics and cultural tendencies of rap, punk and metal began to blur and cross-pollinate. And Chrome Hearts, a label with credible ties to a number of artistic movements across generations, emerged as a luxury brand perfectly poised to define this developing new style.
Seemingly overnight, the decade’s most influential artists—from Jay-Z and Lil Uzi Vert to Offset and Lil Baby—started appearing in Chrome Hearts products, now expanded to include hoodies, denim, trucker hats, furniture, homeware and more. In 2021, Drake and Chrome Hearts brought the two worlds even closer, collaborating on Certified Lover Boy album merch. But, of course, there were two co-signs in particular that helped introduce Chrome Hearts to an entirely new generation: Virgil Abloh and Kanye West.
Reportedly one of Abloh’s longest standing influences, in 2015 Off-White collaborated with Chrome Hearts, continuing to do so in 2016 and 2018. Taking things a step further, in 2019 Abloh debuted his inaugural Louis Vuitton collection at Chrome Hearts’ Manhattan flagship in the form of a temporary pop-up. West, an artist whose style is constantly under the microscope, lit up social media feeds in a leather Chrome Hearts jacket, placing the brand on the radar of budding fashion enthusiasts worldwide.
Chrome Hearts Today
Despite its origins as a leather-and-silversmith brands producing exclusive goods for late ’80s and early ’90s rockstars, Chrome Hearts has managed to eschew any pigeonholing while remaining true to its heritage. Today, the brand’s distinct gothic vision is as pure as ever, an expression bolstered by the Stark family’s commitment to producing nearly all pieces in its Hollywood campus, an operation that now spans eight factories and 13 buildings. The few exceptions to this rule typically involve sourcing materials from other luxury manufacturers around the world, such as Loro Piana in Italy. The result is a brand that both stands the test of time and evolves as culture itself evolves.
Perhaps more remarkably, Chrome Hearts refuses—to this day—to sell any of its products online. But rather than hindering the brand’s appeal, its elusive nature encourages new and returning fans to visit brick-and-mortar stores for a unique and engaging experience. The slow, gradual encroachment of the digital sphere upon the lofty, isolated worlds of high fashion is a phenomenon that has swallowed the industry in just the last decade. And the one label that has stood firm is a Los Angeles jewelry brand, born during the decade of unbridled American commercialism, amidst one of the most marketable epochs in rock ‘n’ roll history.