Some of the biggest moments in K-pop recently have featured gleaming chrome grills, fashioned sleek and stylishly for the singers’ mouths. Both XG’s “Woke Up” and Lisa’s “Rockstar” feature these adornments front and center. They’re the creations of Saeminium, a Korean teeth jeweler who was recently in Bangkok to follow up on Lisa’s splash here. His style deviates from the more traditional style of grills popularized by rappers and instead takes a daintier, finer approach with girls specifically in mind. It’s clearly caught on.
From the start, Saeminium wanted to create a more “girlish” style of grills. His lightweight, thin, and delicate style is a bit closer to teeth gems than it is to bling. It began with the idea of taking neo-tribal design styles and using them for mouth accessories. “When I started, grills weren’t mainstream in Korea outside of K-rap and customers from US military bases,” he says. “But I wanted to make something more simple and fancy. I’ve always liked girls’ style better, it’s more detailed. I personally like pretty things. There weren’t many girls interested in grills yet, but I saw the potential.” He’s always had more women clients than men, at least half of who’ve been musicians, with about another third being models.
Saeminium, whose business name is a metallic play on his childhood nickname Saemi, got his start in metalwork because the university he went to only had so many options available with his grade point average. “But I had confidence that whatever major I chose I could do something unique with it,” he smiles, showing off his own shimmering grills. At first, he wanted to make eyewear, but the industry is very factory-driven and he wanted to create handmade products. His first grills four years ago were actually a pair of glasses that were supported by the wearer’s teeth rather than their ears. It inspired him to focus on grills and he spent a year learning how to properly keep them in place in a client’s mouth. He’d try them out on friends and himself, making about two or three per week. “I liked to practice on people with bad teeth, because if they’re perfect you don’t learn anything. If my friend had twisted teeth, I’d be like, ‘You come to my house.'”
Saeminium’s first famous client—his first commission, in fact—was an idol named Lee Hi. He’s also worked with Thai K-pop artist Ten. And he’s been working with XG’s boss Simon Jakops for about three years now, growing as a teeth jeweler as the X-pop group rose in fame, doing about 25 different pieces for them altogether. When “Woke Up” dropped, it was a new level of fame for him, with all seven members rocking his designs on their cover and being featured centrally throughout the video. He says working with Cho Gi-Seok, the director, was a more collaborative process than usual, one that he enjoyed.
Shortly after that, Lisa dropped “Rockstar,” which featured Saeminium’s trademark three-tooth star as a centerpiece. He says that her cover photographer originally messaged him about using his grills without mentioning who the artist was but then disappeared. After a while, Saemi forgot about it until Lisa’s personal stylist messaged him directly, saying he had to be a meeting with the former BLACKPINK star right away. A request to which he obliged, obviously.
“Rockstar” was shot on Chinatown’s famous Yaowarat thoroughfare, included numerous local talents in the video, and they paid local shops 20,000 baht each so they could close while filming. The Bangkok location, the inclusion of so many Thai creatives, and the fact that Lisa is Thai herself created a debate about whether the track should be considered K-pop or T-pop. One aspect missing from that debate is the fact that many of the styles that are used in K-pop were originally created by Black communities—including the modern idea of grills themselves.
Whether you call them grillz, fronts, caps, or teeth jewelry, the phenomenon has a history going back to ancient European and Mayan cultures. Pre-colonial Filipinos also practiced gold pegging, drilling holes into their teeth to fill with gold decorations. But the modern idea of grills was popularized by Black and Latino Americans beginning at least in the 1970s. Rappers solidified their stature in the 80s and have done so consistently since then. Some of the famous OG grills jewelers include New York’s Eddie Plein and later Houston’s Johnny Dang.
Saeminium says that “Rockstar” was a new level of exposure for him, but that it’s just another high mark in a steadily growing career. “I’ve worked with a stream of artists over the years, it’s been a gradual growth. There hasn’t been any one surprise point,” he explains. But it’s definitely changed things for him. “People trust me more now. It used to be that stylists would look for unique things and decide they want grills at the last minute and need them urgently. Now entertainment companies contact me directly and there’s more planning and time. I’m not as hard to find anymore.”
He also says that it’s the first thing anyone talks about when he meets new people. “Whenever someone introduces me to a new person, they introduce me as the one who did Lisa’s grills,” he laughs.