What many people might not know is that, as fashion journalists, we receive what feels like upwards of one million emails per hour into our inboxes. And while it is impossible to engage with every single one (sorry to any PRs reading), when a message arrives with the subject line, “The $1M Chrome Hearts Deal On Karl Lagerfeld’s Rare Collection by a 21-Year-Old Founder”, you tend to sit up and pay attention.

The 21-year-old in question is Raphael Badalov, owner of the New York-based luxury resale service Byraph, renowned for its dealings in all things Chrome Hearts. Founded in 2024 by Badalov, then 19, Byraph operates with a small team of four others, but his Instagram page is dominated by selfies with Central Cee, Young Thug and Playboi Carti, all of whom he counts as clients. The account documents the dizzying, intense and often ludicrous world of the Chrome Hearts resale market, where hoodies can go for upwards of $40k, and a pair of jeans can reportedly set you back six figures.

At just 21, Badalov is making a name for himself in the global Chrome market – but how did he end up with a cache of Chrome Hearts pieces said to have belonged to Karl Lagerfeld, which he eventually sold for more than $1 million? Of his many, many eccentricities, Lagerfeld was known to be an avid Chrome collector since the 1990s, but the whereabouts of that collection have been contested since he died in 2019. In an interview with GQ in 2023, Chrome Hearts co-owner Laurie Lynn Stark – wife of founder Richard Stark – told the magazine that Lagerfeld’s collection had “disappeared”, stuck in a quagmire of legal battles over the designer’s estate after his passing. “I don’t know where it went,” was Laurie Lynn’s simple response.

On a video call from his Tribeca store, Badalov explains where he fits into this whole saga. As part of their product sourcing, the Byraph team use Instagram as an outreach tool when expanding their inventory, and this time they were looking for one particular rarity: gold Chrome Hearts. “So we were going through our lead lists, and then somebody replied to our story like, ‘hey, we have Karl Lagerfeld’s estate’s collection’, that they acquired a year and a half ago,” he says matter-of-factly. “They were just looking to make a deal on it. On one of our first deals, we definitely didn’t expect to land this big of a lot.” When I ask who this person was, Badalov is coy, careful not to sell out a person who clearly did not want their identity revealed. “It was from a private seller. He’s not even a seller. He’s more of just, like…,” he says, before trailing off. “Not really a collector, not really a seller. He’s just somebody who got lucky enough to have access to this collection, and I guess he was just ready to part ways with it.”

Without estate paperwork, the provenance rests on Byraph’s own research, the rarity of the pieces, and authentication by specialists in the Chrome Hearts resale market. Though Lagerfeld is estimated to have owned hundreds of pieces, this particular lot consisted of 13, the vast majority being gold bracelets and wallet chains with pavé diamonds. But did Badalov immediately question whether the pieces were really Lagerfeld’s? “Yes, that was the initial problem,” he responds. “But when we did a background check on that lot, they’re not items you can get from Chrome anymore. There used to be a time when you could order gold items from the factory, but now there’s no access. So for him to just present a collection like that…” he says before trailing off again, suggesting this was no random haul from a regular Joe.

Within the lot, two other standout pieces helped convince Badalov that the collection had once belonged to Lagerfeld. The first – one of the few non-gold items in the lot – was a gunmetal necklace covered in black diamonds with a fleur-de-lis pendant, a symbol of the French monarchy, of which Lagerfeld was a huge fan. “There was a necklace that they made for him – a one-of-one with black diamonds, and he’s the only person that has ever, ever had it,” says the 21-year-old, who later emailed a photograph of Lagerfeld in 2013 wearing the piece.

The second item that helped shift the needle for Badalov was a belt buckle in the shape of the US flag, its stars and stripes inlaid with coloured stones, and its reverse engraved with the Pledge of Allegiance in Chrome Hearts’ signature gothic typeface. According to Badalov, two versions of the buckle exist: a smaller one that was previously for general sale, and then the version from this lot, a special edition made to commemorate the events of 9/11. “It was a remarkable find,” says Badalov. “That goes back to my point of knowing that this collection was Karl’s. They released that piece so long ago, and it was allocated to only 11 units, and this one had the serial number three out of 11. That was probably the biggest hitter in terms of being able to authenticate the collection. I was very hyped for that piece, for sure.”

The final piece of the puzzle that Badalov mentions is a 2026 JOOPITER auction of items from Sébastien Jondeau, Lagerfeld’s former bodyguard and personal assistant. “There was a Karl Lagerfeld auction on JOOPITER a few months ago, unrelated to this collection, so there was already word on the street that an influx of his inventory might be out there,” Badalov assures me. The sale, called The Collection of Sébastien Jondeau: My Life with Karl Lagerfeld, included a Chanel surfboard, Helmut Newton prints, and Chrome Hearts jewellery that Badalov says resembled pieces in the lot. Though the private seller did not show him any concrete evidence that the pieces were from the Lagerfeld estate – such as paperwork or proof of purchase – the Byraph team felt they had enough evidence, alongside their own expertise, to conclude that they had belonged to Lagerfeld.

But once they had decided to accept the items, things became even more complicated. Though Byraph is located in Tribeca, Badalov was actually away in Hong Kong when the deal materialised in the first week of April, which meant there had been no in-person communication with the private seller. Though he had done general research to support the claim that the items were Lagerfeld’s, he still could not be 100 per cent sure they were not fakes without seeing them in person – and that is when he hatched a plan. “Once we agreed upon the deal, the private seller flew to New York to bring us the items. Meanwhile, I shared the deal information with one of the biggest companies in the world for trading Chrome Hearts – I’m talking $150 million annual revenue, complete professionals, top of the top.” Badalov says he then asked employees from that company, which he declines to name, to fly from Japan to New York and present themselves as his employees, as he did not want the private seller to know that he had already found a third party to buy the collection from him. According to Badalov, the Japanese company then authenticated the goods on the spot, took the items and closed the deal – all with Badalov 8,000 miles across the globe.

The entire deal took just ten days, between first contact and final sale. You might wonder if Badalov considered keeping the items or donating them to a museum, but in the unhinged world of the Chrome Hearts resale market, you have to act quickly if you want to make a deal. “The fact of the matter is, it’s a million dollars. Holding a million dollars in this kind of product is very risky because there’s no market for it in America,” says Badalov, who describes the US Chrome market as “complete bullshit.” According to the 21-year-old, fakes are currently flooding America because people want to make a quick buck off the current boom. “In Asia, it’s completely different,” he says. “Prices are at least 20 to 30 per cent higher because of the attention to detail. They invest in ensuring the quality of goods.” Badalov sees himself and his company as an antidote to that American way of thinking. “The whole community is very toxic because everybody is out for each other’s throats, and they resent anybody that’s educating people on it,” he says of his social media style. “I took a completely different approach with Byraph.” In the world Badalov operates in, provenance is not just paperwork; it is mythology, and rumour can be almost as valuable as the object itself.