Luxury's K-Pop Gold Rush Is in Uncharted Territory — Literally
For the past several years, nearly every luxury label on the planet has kissed the K-Pop ring. It makes sense: K-Pop fandom is perhaps the single biggest global youth culture movement of our age, encompassing the world's most devoted fans and the world's most beautiful people.
It all began around 2021 with BTS and BLACKPINK, then perhaps the most famous K-Pop groups.
In light of record-smashing tours, albums, singles, and movies, BTS and BLACKPINK were bigger than The Beatles. John Lennon was never got to speak at the White House, y'know.
But with BTS on hiatus for mandatory South Korean military service and BLACKPINK's members focusing on individual efforts, the K-Pop hierarchy has shifted. It's no longer about the world's biggest: it's about the burgeoning K-Pop stars of tomorrow and the brands that can get to them first.
That largely means being the first to tap talent on the rise.
The Highsnobiety cover stars in NewJeans quickly earned fashion's favor. Since their debut in 2022, individual members have represented Burberry, Dior, Gucci, Chanel, Levi's, UGG, and Nike. As recently as March 2024, CELINE tapped 18-year-old singer Danielle as a global ambassador.
Le Sserafim, which debuted a mere two days prior to NewJeans, became a collective Louis Vuitton ambassador in October 2023, barely after celebrating its first anniversary.
Though boy band Stray Kids is slightly older than the two aforementioned outfits, its popularity exploded in 2021 — by 2023, it was selling literally millions of albums and two members were individually signed on as ambassadors for Versace and Louis Vuitton.
It was the latter deal, forged with Stray Kids rapper Felix, that recently snagged LV an estimated $4.4 million in earned media value. In March 2024, Felix made a surprise runway appearance during the house's womenswear runway presentation and set Twitter on fire.
And, anecdotally, $4.4m seems like a safe bet. The day that Felix hit the LV catwalk, the news dominated the internet; it was utterly inescapable as fans poured on the love for their hero.
This is why fashion houses pay top dollar to sign K-Pop idols.
K-Pop fandom engenders unusually obsessive fixations that result in so much digital demand that Twitter, the primary Western outlet for K-Pop enthusiasm, retains a dedicated "K-Pop and K-contents partnership" team.
That translates into ample boons for the brands cosigned by the musicians, like free advertising — fans spread idols' ads with gusto — and big bucks. (It's admittedly difficult to measure the exact financial impact but stans point to perpetually sold-out product as evidence of influence)
Likely the biggest appeal is related to demographics.
Estimates put the average K-Pop fan in their early 20s and female-identifying — a crucial the consumers base most ardently sought by luxury companies.
The stakes are high. Capturing this covetable market demands urgency.
This is probably what pushed Acne Studios to make one of luxury's most audacious K-Pop plays to date and hire the five members of ILLIT to star in its Spring/Summer 2024 campaign.
It's audacious, you see, because ILLIT, whose members range in age from 16-20, hadn't yet actually produced anything by the time they starred in the Acne campaign. Not an album, not a dance, not even a song. The imagery debuted on March 14, over ten days prior to the release of ILLIT's debut single.
For comparison, imagine if Nike giving a just-drafted 20-year-old basketball player their own signature sneaker.
ILLIT is backed by HYBE, to be fair, which has produced surefire winners like BTS, NewJeans, and Le Sserafim, so there's precedence for the early bet. And Acne, more nimble than the larger luxury conglomerates, only secured ILLIT for the one campaign and invited the group to its most recent womenswear show, rather than signing them to a long-term contract.
Plus, with over a half-million fans following ILLIT prior to their premiere, visibility was guaranteed.
But this lightning-fast turnaround is reflective of the next stage of the luxury K-Pop gold rush.
First, it was all about the big names, the obvious winners. Next came demand for upstart talents only semi-proven. Now, it's a race to be first.
Not that fans mind, of course.
