What's New Shop: Heavy Metal at King Baby

The dawn of the 1970s in America saw mainstream hippy love being kicked out, and reality-warping ideas from the new alternative wave come howling in. The “Me Decade” was born, and a key mantra for these ten years came from a phrase coined by Sigmund Freud many years prior – “His majesty, the baby.” This phrase was used to describe people who had a mental condition that perpetuated the idea that the whole world revolved around them.

Fast-forward a few years and Freud’s idea has had a bit of leatherwork done to it, and has been molded into the egotistical American jewelry brand, King Baby. Rather than conforming to the nine-to-five norm most of us have adopted, King Baby thinks you should grab life by its motorcycled handlebars (a prime black and chrome example of which sits ready to roar out of their Xidan store) and flaunt the untamed drippings of leather wraps, precious and semi-precious stones, fossilized mammoth bone, and beaten die-cast sterling metals around your fingers, neck, and any other place you want the world to see that biker bravado that’s been hiding in you.

If, however, you find that your ego doesn’t actually make the world go round, then the money you’ll be dropping on King Baby’s handmade jewelry will certainly make your head spin. Don’t expect any bling around your fingers for less that RMB 1,500, and tack an extra digit on the end for the chunky and bold necklaces (some of the sterling pieces will set you back a bit less, with RMB 7,000 a standard starting figure for less extravagant neck decor).

With a first location firmly established in Xidan’s colossal Joy City mall, and a second store opening up in Taikoo Li Sanlitun, timeless death-and-glory aesthetics are still very much alive and well in Beijing.

King Baby
Daily 10am-10pm. Unit 26, 1/F, Xidan Joy City, 131 Xidan Beidajie, Xicheng District
西城区西单北大街131号西单大悦城1号楼26号单元
500m north of Xidan (Line 1, Line 4)

Photo courtesy of King Baby