Brands like Chrome Hearts include Amiri, Gallery Dept, Rhude, Enfants Riches Déprimés, Rick Owens, Hellstar and Vetements, each sharing part of its gothic, silver-and-leather signature. If what you want is the heavy hoodie with a cross on it rather than the sterling silver, independents such as Phrase Studios sit in a completely different lane and are worth knowing about. The list below splits by what you are actually shopping for.
Chrome Hearts was founded in 1988 in Los Angeles by Richard Stark with Leonard Kamhout and John Bowman, and it began as a leather workshop making pieces for motorcycle riders before the sterling silver took over. That order matters. It is a jewellery and leather house first and a clothing label second, which is why the crosses, daggers and fleur-de-lis motifs read as hardware rather than as print. It is still family-run, it barely advertises, and it keeps supply tight on purpose.
What people usually mean by this
Three requests hide inside the same search. Some people want the silver: heavy sterling rings, crosses and chains with a gothic finish. Some want the clothes, the Old English lettering and the leather. And some want the position, a label that is expensive, hard to buy and quietly famous rather than advertised. Deciding which of the three mattered to you cuts the shortlist down fast.
Los Angeles luxury with the same attitude
These are the closest peers by city, price and mood, all luxury labels built on subculture references. Several appear in our round-up of the best luxury streetwear brands.
- Amiri, founded by Mike Amiri in Los Angeles, comes from the same rock end of the city. Distressed denim, leather and bandana motifs, finished to a standard that earns the fashion-house context. More in our piece on brands like Amiri.
- Gallery Dept, founded by Josué Thomas in Los Angeles, works in reworked vintage, hand-painted finishes and paint-splattered denim. It is the most hand-made of the group and the closest in spirit to a workshop rather than a design studio. See brands like Gallery Dept.
- Enfants Riches Déprimés, founded by Henri Alexander Levy in Los Angeles, takes the punk route: hand-finished leather, scrawled text and deliberately confrontational graphics, sitting at the very top of the category. It also features in our list of the most expensive streetwear brands.
- Rhude, founded by Rhuigi Villaseñor, is the calmer neighbour. Motorsport and American nostalgia rather than gothic imagery, but the same Los Angeles to Paris path. Start with brands like Rhude.
Gothic and dark graphic streetwear
If it is the imagery you are drawn to, the crosses, the Old English type and the general darkness, these labels get you there more directly and mostly for less.
- Rick Owens, born in California and based in Paris, is the reference point for gothic luxury more broadly. Draped, monochrome and architectural, far less literal about religious motifs, but the same appetite for darkness taken seriously.
- Hellstar built its following on distressed, heavily printed jersey with religious and cosmic imagery, sold in drops rather than seasons. It is the streetwear answer to the look rather than the luxury one. We cover it in brands like Hellstar.
- Vetements, founded in 2014 and now led by Guram Gvasalia, put gothic and Old English lettering on oversized hoodies before much of the current wave did. Expensive, knowing, and closer to fashion commentary than to metalwork.
- Warren Lotas works in hand-drawn horror and Americana graphics on heavy tees and hoodies, based in Los Angeles and released in small drops. A different reference library, but the same sense of one artist's hand on everything.
If it is the silver you are after
Chrome Hearts is a jewellery house that also makes clothes, so many people looking for alternatives really want a heavy sterling ring rather than a hoodie. That is a separate market with its own names.
- Goro's, the Tokyo workshop founded by Goro Takahashi, is the other silver label with this level of devotion behind it. Feathers and Native American influenced forms rather than crosses, and famously difficult to buy in person.
- Werkstatt:München makes hand-forged silver in Munich with a rougher, almost archaeological finish. Quiet where Chrome Hearts is loud, and carried by a small number of stockists.
- Good Art Hlywd is a Los Angeles silversmith working in the same heavy sterling territory, with a biker and rock lineage that overlaps almost exactly.
The honest cheaper route to the hoodie
If the piece you actually want is a heavy hoodie or tee and the silver was never the point, buy from a studio that spends its budget on the cloth. Phrase Studios is an independent studio in Ghent, Belgium, founded in 2023 and working under the line "From friends, to friends". We build in numbered chapters of heavyweight cotton in small runs that we do not restock. Our hoodies and sweatshirts and tees are made for weight and drape rather than for gothic hardware, and we would be misleading you if we suggested otherwise. We work in what we call Lowlands streetwear, a quieter lane than anything above.
None of these are straight swaps. Amiri, Gallery Dept, Enfants Riches Déprimés and Rick Owens match the ambition and the price, so they solve the feeling rather than the cost. Hellstar, Vetements and Warren Lotas get you the dark graphic for less, but not the metalwork. The silver houses give you the craft without the clothing. Chrome Hearts is unusual precisely because it refuses to be one thing, so pick the thread that mattered to you and follow that one.
FAQ
What brands are similar to Chrome Hearts?
The closest names are Amiri, Gallery Dept, Enfants Riches Déprimés and Rick Owens for the luxury and the gothic mood, with Hellstar, Vetements and Warren Lotas covering the dark graphic look for less. For the sterling silver itself, look at Goro's, Werkstatt:München and Good Art Hlywd. If you only want a heavy hoodie, independents such as Phrase Studios sit in a different lane.
Why is Chrome Hearts so expensive?
Because almost everything about it is built to be slow and small. The silver is hand-finished in its own workshops, the leather work is closer to furniture-making than to garment production, and the brand runs its own stores rather than wholesaling widely. You are paying for materials, labour and scarcity together rather than for one of them, and whether that is worth it depends on whether you want the object or the name.
What is a cheaper alternative to a Chrome Hearts hoodie?
For the dark graphic look, Hellstar and Warren Lotas sell heavy printed hoodies well below the luxury bracket. For the garment without the imagery, an independent studio working in heavyweight cotton will give you the weight and the drape for less again, and Phrase Studios is one option there. You give up the gothic hardware and the recognition, which for many buyers is the whole appeal.
