Overseas success of S Korean music and TV opens doors for fashion

March 28, 2014 9:26 am

Overseas success of S Korean music and TV opens doors for fashion

By Simon Mundy in Seoul

A stream of 15 stern, spindly Korean women stride on five-inch high heels through a blizzard of artificial snow, parading flowing white dresses and quilted romper suits amid throbbing house music.

It is an impressive display, and one funded mostly by the South Korean government, which granted Joo Hyo-soon, a fashion designer, Won30m ($28,000) to cover most of the costs of her show at Seoul Fashion Week.

This week’s event, held in a futuristic structure designed by the Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, was backed by the Seoul municipal authorities to the tune of Won1.5bn.

That complemented heavy investment in fashion by the national government: the trade and industry ministry plans to spend Won12bn on supporting the fashion industry this year, with another Won6bn coming from the culture ministry and Won5bn from the state’s creative content agency.

This growing financial support for the fashion industry reflects a broader push by the government to boost the nation’s cultural influence in Asia and beyond, capitalising on feverish regional demand for South Korea’s glamorous pop stars and television dramas.

Foreign fashion industry professionals at the fashion week said the overseas success of the entertainment sector had bolstered the view in Asia of South Korean culture as sophisticated and desirable, opening doors for its fashion designers.

“Korean fashion is up and coming, more famous and popular in China, based on the movie stars and singers,” says Judy Chan, chief operating officer of the upmarket department store Galeries Lafayette Beijing who was attending the fashion week for the first time.

This month China’s official Xinhua news agency reported that a communist party committee had spent an entire morning debating why China cannot produce a soap opera to match the South Korean show My Love from the Star, which is taking the country by storm.

“Now everyone is looking for the clothes that the female character wears in that show,” says Angel Liu, who is preparing to open a Shanghai boutique selling only South Korean clothes. “And a lot of the clothes that the K-pop stars wear are getting popular.”

South Korea’s growth in fashion and entertainment exports is in line with the government’s policy agenda of promoting a “creative economy”, addressing the country’s traditional reliance on sales of manufactured goods.

But small businesses across the economy complain that the government’s promises to foster their growth are undermined by the overbearing behaviour of the dominant chaebol business groups – and the fashion industry is no different.

J Koo, one of the country’s most celebrated fashion labels, has stopped selling its clothes in South Korea in protest at the “sale or return” system practised by the chaebol-owned department stores and other retailers.

Instead of following international standard practice by buying clothes wholesale, the stores return any unsold items to the designers, who therefore incur significant financial risk, says Choi Jin-woo, director of J Koo.

Mr Choi is happy to provide his creations to K-pop groups such as Brown Eyed Girls and f(x), conscious of the foreign demand that this will generate. But “there’s no profit” from selling clothes at home, he says, adding that South Korean consumers expect to pay lower prices for domestic brands than for foreign ones.

Big South Korean and international companies, meanwhile, have held back from sponsoring Seoul Fashion Week, in contrast with larger events in Paris, London and Tokyo. But the organisers are pushing to win corporate backing for future events, as they seek to capitalise on a broader shift in the balance of power in the global fashion industry.

“In the past we adapted our fashions from those of Western countries, but now we’re creating our own styles,” says Baik Jong-won, chief executive of the Seoul Design Foundation, which manages Seoul Fashion Week. “The growth market today is not Europe or the US. The growth market is Asia.”

Back by the runway, Kadri Karolin Kouts of Hong Kong fashion website The Branded says South Korean designers are well placed to gain a larger share of the burgeoning Asian fashion market.

“In the Hong Kong market South Korea is very trendy, very hot . . . people like the quirky sense of style,” she says. “It still seems to be a niche market, but it’s just a matter of time.”