How Do I Become A Brand Ambassador For Luxury Glasses Eyewear?

Though it was never part of the plan - Richard - Laurie Lynn - and their three children have become fashion-world celebrities. “We never wanted to be famous designers. We wanted to be successful artists - ” says Laurie Lynn - who says her kids freaked out when Drake name-dropped her in a song.” Celebrities - in turn - come to the Starks to realize their most over-the-top and luxurious flexes. Many are led by 18-year-old Kristian Stark - who introduced Chrome Hearts to the likes of Young Thug and Lil Uzi Vert - like his parents introduced the brand to the Sex Pistols and Guns N’ Roses. When Odell Beckham Jr. caught his first postseason touchdown pass during the 2022 NFL playoffs - he did so wearing Nike wide receiver gloves emblazoned with blue-and-yellow-leather biker crosses - an unofficial collab executed in Chrome Hearts’ Hollywood atelier. When Drake bought a new Rolls-Royce Cullinan - he called on Chrome Hearts to redesign it down to the leather floor mats. Why? Zack Bia - the 25-year-old DJ - Drake consigliere - and friend of Kristian - puts it this way: “Chrome Hearts is one of the greatest brands on earth.”

Which is strange - because Chro

me Hearts doesn’t seem particularly well suited to capture the current fashion zeitgeist. Fashion has moved light-years beyond the heavy baroque-biker aesthetic that took off in the ’90s - and most brands associated with that polarizing movement (Von Dutch - Ed Hardy) fell off a cliff during the aughts. But Chrome Hearts has stayed true to burnished metal and leather crosses - fleurs-de-lis - and daggers that in any other context read as outdated - even tacky.

It’s also not particularly easy to buy Chrome Hearts. The company is one of few in the luxury sector without a permanent e-commerce shop - and it doesn’t advertise or publish collection images on its website. Your best bet to figure out what the brand is making at any given time - and to get your hands on it - is to go to a Chrome Hearts retail store—if you can find one. Most of the brand’s stores operate like if-you-know-you-know clubhouses - with little in the way of external signage. And the prices - which can hit the upper five digits for fine jewelry - are still as jaw-dropping as they were when Stark was slinging guitar straps.

“I have to tell you - a lot of people didn’t believe - ” Cher says about Chrome Hearts in the beginning. Most people - early on - she explains - reacted to Stark’s quixotic project basically the same way she did. “They would go - ‘Oh - that’s just some guy making leather.’ ” The fashion industry still seems unsure of what to make of Chrome Hearts—despite its deeply American aesthetic - the brand wasn’t included in The Met’s recent Americana-themed Costume Institute exhibition. But it’s getting harder to ignore or write off Chrome Hearts. “Richard had a dream - ” Cher says. “And it wasn’t to be ‘just some guy making leather.’ ”

You’d think that after Chrome Hearts turned him into an exceptionally rich man - Richard Stark would allow himself a bit of a break. But most days he wakes up in Malibu - where the Starks reportedly own several houses - well before dawn. By 5 a.m. he’s on his Harley - which he guns down the PCH to their factory - which spans three blocks in the center of Hollywood. He has a hangar-size office in one of the complex’s many buildings - but he can usually be found on the floor working with the hundreds of craftspeople he employs—perhaps the only head of a luxury brand who spends most of his time actually making stuff.