In the opulent confines of his office in Southwest Houston, Johnny Dang reclines in a plush leather chair. Known as the King of Bling, the longtime jeweler-to-the-stars is surrounded by ornate décor and a gold-plated moneycounting machine. Suddenly, an employee barges in with a patron who’s made the final payment on a gem-encrusted grill. Dang leaps into action for a quick hype video filmed on the customer’s iPhone. “Who else has this?” he boasts.
Enjoying this article?If you’ve seen a celebrity flash a smile brimming with diamonds, there’s a good chance the mouthpiece was created by Dang. The jeweler has fashioned oral accessories for everyone from Shaquille O’Neal to Snoop Dogg. But his illustrious career started five decades ago in the Vietnamese village of Buôn Ma Thuôt.
Born in 1973, Dang grew up learning to make traditional Vietnamese jewelry without modern amenities like electricity. After moving to Houston in 1996, he helped at a cousin’s flea market jewelry kiosk and did freelance repairs at night. “I had so many jobs hustling,” Dang recalls.
Eventually, the volume of work led him to open his own shop in Sharpstown Mall. After creating a diamond grill for Houston rapper Paul Wall, the pair went into business together in 2002. Afforded a direct line into the city’s hip-hop scene, Dang was soon designing pieces for Slim Thug, Mike Jones, and other famed Houstonians.
Utilizing the skills he internalized back in Vietnam, Dang’s iced-out accessories now fetch between $1,000 and $200,000. With each celebrity showpiece he forges, a new customer shows up wanting to top his previous efforts. And that’s something Dang embraces. “I’m always pushing,” he says, “always coming up with a new and better design.”
