You may have heard of Los Angeles-based Chrome Hearts through its accessories collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation back in 2007; its 14-piece footwear collection with Gareth Pugh for Spring/Summer 2014; or, most recently, its ready-to-wear collaboration with family friend, Bella Hadid...

If this isn't ringing any bells, perhaps a scroll through the brand's Instagram (of 618k followers) – featuring its chunky silver jewellery, alongside friends and family of the brand, like Artistic Director of Louis Vuitton menswear, Virgil Abloh, and Rihanna – might jog your memory.


"Chrome Hearts and Virgil Abloh Private Dinner to Celebrate Louis Vuitton’s Temporary Residence at Chrome Hearts New York" via @chromeheartsofficial.

Founded out of a garage in 1988 by Richard Stark, the brand has since expanded (and ascended to cult status) while keeping it in the family. "I’ve been blessed with three entrepreneurial kids with very individual minds," says Laurie Lynn Stark, who helms the label with her husband. "A lot of kids are born into family legacy businesses but they don’t necessarily gravitate towards it; we're really lucky that it's the opposite."

With strength in numbers and creativity in abundance, each Stark family member brings something to the brand. "I
t’s a collaborative effort and it's very hard to answer what we all do, because we all do everything – and we pick up from each other," says second youngest, 15-year-old, Frankie Belle

It's staying true to this keep-it-in-the-family ethos that's informed the latest advancement for the brand: fragrance. "Everything about the fragrances is based around family," adds Laurie Lynn "You set a tone in the house when you’re a mum... I've always got flowers, plants and herbs in a jar drying and dehydrating; I’ll burn apples and cinnamon on the stove so when you walk in you smell it; I love palo santo and sage; I’m very into setting the mood. The kids think it’s normal but when they go to another person's home they realise it’s not always like that."



With the family often apart and travelling for work – eldest daughter, Jesse Jo, is a singer-songwriter in her own right – it was important for Laurie Lynn to be able to bottle this feeling of home for everyone to feel grounded. "I remember my grandmother after she passed; I still remember her smell and what her house smelled like, and I wanted to be able to almost package that feeling and then let them enjoy it in their own home even if I’m not there," she explains.

Seven-years-in-the-making, the two signature fragrances for the brand, +22+ and +33+, came into fruition by way of the help of a nose in France. "I learned a lot about myself in trusting my instincts in the conception process," says Laurie Lynn. "I didn’t know if I had a good nose but I knew it was heightened because I cook. I just went with what I felt; I tested it by wearing it and walking around and if 10 out of 20 people said 'urgh what is that?', it meant it's not a good note."

Named as they are because both numbers "were embedded in Richard's mind and would pop up in lots of different places for him, and 33 is often correlated to creativity and self-expression, while 22 was his mother’s favourite number," everything about the brand's foray into fragrance is considered.

"We created everything from scratch," says Laurie Lynn. "Everything is as conscious as it can be; they say it’s easy to be eco-friendly and go sustainable but its not; you have to really want to do it and the companies that wanna work with you are making it really as easy as possible for you to not go that way. I 
pushed for a certain colour of simplicity so it wasn’t focussing on the packaging; it was focussing on the product inside the packaging. The packaging itself, however, is very green with soy-based ink."



And what about the scents themselves? "They definitely have a sexy mystery when you leave the room," says Laurie Lynn.  "I didn’t want the scents to be overwhelming; the idea was to leave a hypnotic impression." While +33+ bottles the brand's rock 'n' rock spirit with spicy and leathery notes with a warm base, +22+ combines berry and floral notes. "+33+ is for men and +22+ is for women but they're complementary and, technically speaking, mixable... I mix the two!" Naturally, if Laurie Lynn does it, you bet, we'll be following suit.

Make like Laurie Lynn and mix and match +22+ and +33+ here:


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