“I don’t collect Chrome Hearts for the sake of collecting,” says Raphael Badalov, the 22-year-old collector and founder of Byraph, home to one of the largest collections of rare Chrome Hearts items in the world. “I collect it out of respect for its value and culture, out of love for the brand, the designs, and its history.”
Amid the chaos of New York Fashion Week, as much of the city’s fashion industry races from one show to the next, an unexpected treasure trove opened its doors in Flatiron: an 800-plus-piece collection of rare archival Chrome Hearts spanning from the brand’s beginnings in 1988 to today. Designed by Badalov himself, the moody, downtown-cool interior is decked out with a custom-upholstered sofa, Persian rugs, and chains hanging from the ceiling.
Racks of rare cross-encrusted sweatshirts and limited-edition denim sit alongside Chrome Hearts furniture, while intricate silver jewelry and stranger objects are displayed behind custom glass vitrines. “This store is really my love letter to Chrome Hearts, expressed through a curation of rare pieces I’ve collected over the years,” he says.
Long before he started collecting rare Chrome Hearts, Badalov’s infatuation with fashion began at a young age. Growing up in Brooklyn, he was inspired by streetwear culture and stores such as VFiles and Opening Ceremony, while his mother’s closet introduced him to high fashion.
“I’d go into my mom’s closet and try on her Vetements and realize how transformative clothes can be,” Badalov recalls. “I realized fashion isn’t just having a cool outfit.
It’s about expressing yourself. I felt like I was able to radiate my personality with confidence in a way that I couldn’t and still can’t otherwise.”
After internships at labels such as Moncler and jobs at local showrooms, Badalov realized he gravitated most toward vintage, archives, and curation. Shortly before he turned 18, a customer walked into one of those showrooms carrying Chrome Hearts, the Los Angeles–based brand founded in 1988 as a custom leather business for motorcycle riders that has since expanded its Gothic, rock-and-roll aesthetic across fine jewelry, denim, eyewear, furniture, fragrances, and an ever-growing assortment of objects.
“Something inside me told me, This is the next brand that’s gonna take over the world,” he remembers, citing it as the moment that prompted him to start collecting archival Chrome Hearts. He was especially fascinated by the limited quantities of its handcrafted pieces, many rendered in sterling silver and 22-karat gold or embellished with diamonds and precious stones.
The brand’s cult following only deepened his fascination: Badalov cites Karl Lagerfeld, who amassed an expansive private collection, and Virgil Abloh, whose collaborations ranged from limited-edition Off-White capsules to a handcrafted ebony bench designed with Stark over five years, as personal inspirations. “It was such an anomaly in fashion that was co-signed by such icons, and that’s what really drew me in,” Badalov says.
As Badalov dropped out of high school to pursue reselling full-time, he found an entry point into the rare Chrome Hearts market in the Philippines, where vintage sellers had accumulated decades-old T-shirts dating back to the 1990s amid strong local demand. Asia remains central to both sides of his business today, as a market for selling rare pieces and a source for finds he brings back to clients in the U.S.—over the course of a three-month business trip earlier this year, he documented a $1 million haul in Japan on his vlog and sold more than $100,000 worth of pieces in China.
Once he had accumulated enough profits, Badalov moved from hunting vintage tees to “playing the retail game”: buying Chrome Hearts directly from its stores and reselling pieces once the limited quantities sold out. “I eventually got banned from every single store in the world,” he laughs.
(He has since restored his relationship with the Chrome Hearts family, after returning a $25,000 purple office chair he discovered had been stolen from founder Richard Stark’s family and belonged to Stark’s mother. In return, Stark personally customized a Chrome Hearts watch that Badalov had sourced—now his most prized possession to this day.
“I didn’t need it in my store or want to profit off of it,” he says. “It was a family heirloom, and the brand is all about family, so of course I was going to give it back.”)
As his clientele grew—amassing clients such as Playboi Carti, Young Thug, Central Cee, and Devin Vassell—so did the rarity and value of the pieces passing through his hands. Most notably, he became the unlikely buyer of Karl Lagerfeld’s mysterious private collection of Chrome Hearts gold: 13 pieces acquired through a private estate sale for roughly $1 million, amounting to the biggest deal of his career.
Among his other favorite acquisitions was a 1954 gold Patek Philippe pocket watch customized with Chrome Hearts insignia—which he ultimately sold and still regrets letting go—as well as a diamond-covered solid-gold toilet plunger and a roughly 30-pound silver dice chain, currently on display in the store.
After opening his first showroom near the High Line, Badalov eventually graduated to the new Flatiron flagship, filling it with pieces sourced from around the world, from Chrome Hearts beanbags found in Asia to a gym bench air-freighted from Hong Kong. Garments range from $700 T-shirts, which he often gifts to clients after a major purchase, to six-figure denim, including an exclusive friends-and-family pair with pony-hair patches—one of roughly eight he says were made—which are priced at $250,000 and hidden in a private VIP room decked out with cigarette-shaped skateboards and a hookah pipe.
Badalov has also begun customizing and embellishing existing Chrome Hearts pieces for clients, emulating the brand’s spirit of intricate craftsmanship and grunge through his own work. One recent favorite is a Foti skeleton chain piece he customized with diamonds between its links and rubies set into its eyes.
Inspired by Chrome Hearts’s attention to detail and rarity, he plans to develop jewelry of his own next, to sell alongside his collection. “I want to capture the energy, attention to detail, and rarity of the Chrome Hearts pieces,” he says.
“Chrome represents what fashion means to me, and it’s what made me me.”