Talking Shop with Laurie Lynn Stark

There’s a saying, albeit a dated one, that goes something like this: “You should never mix friends with business.” But for the Starks, though, this is the antithesis of their business model. In fact, mixing friends with business is it's a notion that has helped to create and maintain the Chrome Hearts brand since its launch in 1988. Case in point: Rick Owens, a friendship that dates back decades, built on a mutual adoration for timeless design. Their recent collaboration? A limited edition set of custom pieces that grew out of pure instinct and intuition that blends their love of enduring timeless style and the synergy that exists between their two iconic brands.

YALE BRESLIN: How did you and Rick initially meet Rick?

LAURIE LYNN STARK: We met Rick through Michèle [Lamy, Owens’s wife] when she had a restaurant in L.A., Les Deux Cafése. They lived behind the restaurant, and Rick had his atelier there. Tommy Perse had made the first introduction to Michèele at that time and she gave me my first Rick piece—a rust-colored skirt.

YB: Over the years, what has's your creative relationship been like?

LLS: Rick and Michèle are our family in Paris: so, Sunday dinners together, sharing life together there. Dinner conversations naturally revolved around art, music, design, and just evolved into doing things together. It wasn’t a collaboration, we always just admired each other’s work, always shared clients and knew we could make special pieces for them. We would choose pieces of Rick’s that we especially loved and would customize them in our studio: shoes, outerwear, women’s collection—whatever we liked. There were no plans, it was just about how we felt.

YB: They say you should never mix friends with business, but this collaboration seems to prove that rule wrong. What do you think?

LLS: I don’t know who wrote that rule, but it doesn’t apply to us. We’ve built our entire business on working with friends and family. It’s the only way we do things here. We’ve done it for years, and it’s very important to us.

YB: Tell me a little bit about the pieces—which are some of your favorites?

LLS: It’s all instinctual, we never have any plans for the quantity of pieces in the group or how we’ll customize them. Rick trusts us with however we decide to customize the pieces, and we’re never on a timeline. We do it when it feels right. But it would be impossible for me to decide which is my favorite from these.

YB: You march to the beat of your own drumbeat to your own drums. Moving forward, what are some projects that you're working on? Any collaborations you can fill me in on?

LLS: We’re really passionate about our furniture collection at the moment, so a lot of our focus is there right now. I don’t know where that will take us, but it’s an important piece for us right now.