Chrome Hearts Gets Glam With a New Collaboration
Have you ever heard someone mention Audrey Hepburn and The Cramps musician Poison Ivy in the same sentence? That's how Jesse Jo Stark, the creative director of L.A.-based jewelry label Chrome Hearts, describes her new collaboration with the 131-year-old pearl jewelry maker Mikimoto. Launching Friday, November 8th, the collection stemmed from Stark's desire to capture the duality of irreverence and rock-n-roll spirit that has always defined Chrome Hearts and the divine, demure femininity that pearls can represent.
In 2020, Stark began seeding plans to bring a pearl collection to fruition, to which her father and Chrome Hearts cofounder, Richard Stark said, “If it’s pearls, it has to be Mikimoto.” It was a match made in heaven. The chemistry between the two storied brands blossomed into a ripe romance of pieces that resemble Belle Époque splendor kissed with Chrome Hearts’s gothic gilding. The collection includes 11 pieces of fine jewelry and four pieces of high jewelry, produced in limited two-of-a-kind quantities.
The collection invites you to have your cake and eat it too, serving precious pearl novelties frosted with Chrome Hearts’s illustrious edge. A safety pin-shaped brooch engraved with a Maltese cross flirts with an edgy essence, punctuated with a sweet twist by way of three pearls strung along one side. There’s a pearl lariat impressed with a Chrome Hearts “Baby Fat” cross emblem at the center and two gleaming silver spikes at the ends. A pair of drop earrings features white gold hearts stenciled with filigree motifs, suspending a pearl on each side.
Since Richard and Laurie Lynn Stark hatched Chrome Hearts in 1988, it has proven itself a provocateur in the lexicon of punk fashion and accessories, drenching every creation (they make jewelry, ready-to-wear, and lifestyle pieces) in luxury, from the materials used to an enduring commitment to making everything by hand. Fans of Chrome Hearts include Bella Hadid, Rihanna, and Kylie Jenner. The eldest of three, Jessie Jo continues to honor this legacy with her distinctive vision alongside her parents and siblings, Frankie Belle and Kristian Stark.
“Every piece of Chrome Hearts is touched by hands in the process of creation which I love,” Stark says. “There’s no lack of attention to detail.”
From one industry disruptor to another, it is only fitting that Mikimoto was the natural partner to usher pearls into Chrome Hearts’s milieu. Breaking ground with the world’s first cultured pearls in the late 19th century, Mikimoto has emerged as a superpower in the jewelry market, gifting the world with beguiling pearl confections that have amassed its reputation as Japan’s official jeweler.
“This collaboration is, in many ways, a metaphor for modern Japan—deeply rooted in tradition yet constantly pushing boundaries,” Mikimoto CEO Yasuhiko Hashimoto says. “It’s about honoring our past while fearlessly embracing the future, much like the way Japan blends its rich cultural heritage with its advancements in technology and fashion.”
“I love their precision and the way they honor traditions," Stark notes. "My father always emphasized that with Chrome Hearts and how important that was to him. But working with a company like Mikimoto and seeing how important it is to still have their original values and commitments – it makes me love them.”
Together, the result is revolutionary in its own right, born out of unbridled innovation with the integrity of craft woven throughout. The collaboration revamps the way we think about pearls, and perhaps it won’t be long before more of us begin thinking of Audrey Hepburn and Poison Ivy in a shared context, too.
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