Virgil Abloh held his SS20 Louis Vuitton show in Paris yesterday and, unsurprisingly, celebrities were out en masse. Dev Hynes and Italian model Malick Bodian were on the runway, while the likes of Frank Ocean, Gigi Hadid, Skepta, and Lewis Hamilton dotted the front row.
But it was the involvement of a South Korean rapper called Song Min-ho, aka Mino, that really got tongues wagging, sending social media into a frenzy.
The 23-year-old, who is also one quarter of K-pop boy band Winner, is a big deal in South Korea and to streetwear aficionados around the globe.
Currently sitting pretty with 4.9 million followers on Instagram, Mino is equally applauded for his sartorial steez as he is for his musical talents, a fact not only reinforced by the infinite clout shots on his Instagram feed, but by the various endorsements the rapper has enjoyed over the years.
Back in 2017, Mino and bandmate Lee Seung-hoon scored a gig as a Burberry ambassadors. Tapped by then-creative director Christopher Bailey, the pair flew out to London two days before Burberry's Spring 2018 show and were privy to an early collection preview before sitting front row at the show, decked out in the new season's garms.
Elsewhere, Mino has collaborated with Korean sunglasses brand Gentle Monster on an exclusive pack under the name "Burning Planet." The collection was worn by a myriad of K-pop icons, including rapper Code Kunst. He guest-edited Vogue Korea in December 2018 and was on the cover of Dazed in a trippy shoot that spotlighted Balenciaga's collaboration with the UN's World Food Programme.
Having exploded in his own country as a solo rapper after finishing runner-up in reality TV competition show Show Me the Money 4 in 2015, it would seem, with the help of Abloh, Mino has just announced himself to the world in a major way.
