Bold, Practical and Very Online: Four Homegrown South Korean Brands to Know

In February, a long queue weaved around the block of the Galleria Department Store in Seoul. This was peculiar since COVID-19-era “revenge shopping” for international luxury brands had long ago died down.

The “open-run” crowds — or local shoppers waiting in long lines — were waiting for the opening of the pop-up for Surgery, a brand that riffs off the viral “Opium” style on TikTok, one that blends Goth aesthetics with crafty details.

The same day saw pop-ups for two other domestic brands, Fffpostalservice and Newalrin. According to Galleria, the three-day weekend sales for these young brands amounted to over 120 million Korean won, or $88,200, about how much Chanel or Louis Vuitton might expect to earn over a given weekend. 

Besides these potential rising stars, Amomento, Bonbom, Jiyongkim, and Open YY are among some of the other most talked-about Korean brands that have found a loyal following in both the domestic market and abroad.

Like its predecessor We11done, the new wave of K-fashion brands are experts at harnessing the power of K-pop stars, who often play unofficial ambassadors to the brand.

For Open YY, its sister designers Jiyoung and Boyoung Kim double as savvy social media personalities that portrays the covetable lifestyle of fashion-forward urban Seoulites. At Amomento, the brand creative director Lee Mikyung’s personal Instagram account is a lo-fi mood board that echoes the brand’s minimal aesthetic.

Galleria recognized the appeal of such internet-savvy brands that offer something different from traditional, conglomerate-produced domestic labels, or international brands that have been introduced through department stores.

The Hyundai Seoul, the city’s largest department store that opened in 2021, also has made headlines with its strategy of filling an entire floor with “brands that executives would not know” — lots of young and hip domestic labels.

These South Korean brands are similar in that they grew through non-traditional ways, mostly bottom-up by attracting fans online with their unique styles and eventually expanding to department stores and major fashion e-commerce platforms. That such brands became big through rapid online word-of-mouth is not surprising.  

According to DataReportal, Korea was home to 48.34 million social media users in early 2024, which equates to 93.4 percent of the Asian country’s entire population. Instagram was the most frequently used platform, based on recent Statistica data.

To better understand K-fashion’s rise, WWD sat down with the creatives behind Amomento, Bonbom, Jiyongkim and Open YY.

Amomento

Since launching in 2016 Amomento has been picked up by more than 120 stockists in 19 countries, including La Garçonne, Tangerine, and Assembly New York in New York; Printemps and The Frankie Shop in Paris, and Soto in Berlin, among others. Led by 38-year-old creative director Lee Mikyung and her 36-year-old brother Lee Myeongsoo, who is chief executive officer of the brand, the label espouses a quiet minimalism that transcends seasonal trends.

“I wanted to make clothes that can last a long time, clothes that I can revisit over many years,” said Lee Mikyung. “It is easier to make something impactful. It becomes challenging when you start wondering about designs that can endure. That is why I pursue classic minimalism, but try to introduce new inspirations each season.”

Their collections feature neutral color palettes and relaxed silhouettes, but there are devils in the details in terms of material and architectural tailoring. Sustainable fabrics like recycled cotton are used for its signature balloon-style pants, for example.

“Our focus is on everyday life. Our clothes are for wear rather than for show,” said Lee Myeongsoo, who has always been inspired by his sister’s aesthetic.

The siblings’ early appreciation for fashion can be traced back to their father, who worked for Nike, while their open attitude and pragmatic sense for what works for the brand have been honed through studying other disciplines (Lee Mikyung majored in interior architecture while Lee Myeongsoo trained to become an engineer). They worked in fashion merchandising before becoming buyers and curators of their own multibrand store, Shop Amomento.

A year after opening the store, they decided to launch their own in-house brand, which, through the growing influence of social media in the mid-2010s, immediately began attracting local and international buyers and agencies.

The retail business now runs as a separate operation, so much so that Amomento pieces are not even sold at the Yulgok-ro store. Clients looking for the brand are redirected to the Amomento flagship just a few blocks away.

The Lees are now focusing on global marketing for their brand. Last year alone it enjoyed growth rates of 37 percent in orders and a 25 percent jump in sales.

“We faced customs issues as buyers for our store and applied that knowledge for our brand sales. We managed to sort customs problems for Japan and the number of orders quadrupled in 2023. We plan to apply this to other territories,” said Lee Myeongsoo.

Also in the works are possible overseas flagships, beginning with more familiar markets like Japan. A Paris pop-up, which opened during Paris Fashion Week last fall, attracted more than 400 shoppers on opening day alone.

“We find that what works in Korea works overseas as long as we stay true to our brand’s core identity,” said Lee Mikyung. 

Bonbom 

Bonbom Jo did not expect to launch his namesake label, Bonbom, so soon. After graduating from the London College of Fashion, Jo was interning at Y/Project while preparing for a graduate program in Paris when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. His plan was to rise through the ranks of a major label before launching his own brand, like his role model Jonathan Anderson.

Not unlike the meteoric rise of Anderson, Jo’s bold collection for his application portfolio was picked up by Shanghai showroom Shock Value and then Seoul concept store Boon the Shop during the first season. He was dressing the likes of Blackpink by his second collection, and other K-pop mega-groups like BTS and Aespa have since been seen wearing his trademark pleats.

“I probably would not have made my first collection so couture-esque if I had commercial ends in mind. But it was this very aspect that appealed to buyers and that set the tone for the brand,” said the designer, who wishes to turn Bonbom into a global couture house.

Each year the 30-year-old releases four collections of menswear and womenswear, which are now available at T.A. in New York, Curve in Los Angeles, and Tom Greyhound in Paris, among some 50 others. More than 95 percent of the brand’s wholesale revenue — which saw 20 percent growth this first quarter compared to the first quarter of 2023 — came from overseas.

Though ties with the forward-thinking K-pop industry have boosted Bonbom’s appeal, the designer often finds inspiration from the past and espouses a timeless aesthetic.

“I am all about pattern cutting, and am inspired by Monsieur [Hubert de] Givenchy and [Christian] Dior. Knowing the basic rules of pattern cutting allows you to break them,” Jo said. The pleated looks he has developed since his debut collection were also a nod to history, specifically voluminous Zoot suits from 1940s America.

“I thought of ways in which I could hide the excess fabric. I started playing with the stitched parts, which can hug the figure like a corset, and the non-stitched parts, which can be loose and free,” he said about his form-fitting creations. Jo’s understanding of the human body was groomed from an early age, as he grew up under an anatomy professor father. “There must have been a subconscious influence.”

In the meantime, Jo says a new collaboration project is underway with a global brand, which he declined to name. He hopes to open Bonbom’s first flagship in Seoul by May 2025 and introduce bags and shoes. The pleated looks will continue.

“Pleats can create endless possibilities,” he said. “Having archivable signature looks will enable to revisit them in the future. I want my collections to grow organically for the future me.”

Jiyongkim

It is perhaps more accurate to say that Korean retailers “counter-imported” Jiyongkim. The Tokyo multibrand store GR8 was the first to pick up the designer’s entire 2020 Central Saint Martins masters graduation collection.

Jiyongkim already had more than 10 stockists around the world before 10 Corso Como Seoul came into the picture. The number of stockists has since doubled and includes Browns in London, Dover Street Market (New York, Los Angeles, Paris and London), and Ssense.

“It’s not about being labeled as a Korean brand or not. We’re all about making something unique, creative and unprecedented,” said Jiyong Kim of his brand. A semifinalist for the 2024 LVMH Prize and 2023 Samsung Fashion & Design Fund Designer of the Year, Kim worked briefly for Maison Mihara Yasuhiro in Tokyo as well as Lemaire and Louis Vuitton in Paris before launching his label.

Jiyongkim nevertheless has a unique presence in Korea that stretches beyond the realm of traditional retailing. The label does not hold seasonal shows but large-scale exhibitions that attract a cult following. Exhibitions help showcase the brand’s signature “sun-bleached” menswear, which are one-of-a-kind pieces fashioned from fabric laid out under the sun. Pieces before and after sun-bleaching are juxtaposed to show the passage of time, while outdoor installation pieces capture the process in real time during the run of the exhibition.

“I found a kind of beauty in abandoned items like car covers, tents, discarded clothing in the streets,” said Kim, who began testing various fabrics for sun-bleaching when he was an undergraduate student in London. “It’s funny because we get tagged by people for all sorts of sun-faded objects on Instagram. I think the brand created a new aesthetic.”

Jiyongkim recently introduced a new shrink-wrap technique: printing letters and designs on a plastic bag, placing a shirt inside, shrink-wrapping it and allowing Mother Nature to work her whimsy.

“It takes a lot of time and limits the number of pieces in each collection. But we’re not about chasing fast trends, and our fans appreciate the rarity of our pieces,” said the 34-year-old Kim, who is also a collector of vintage items such as World War II-era military gear.

Jiyongkim has taken part in unexpected collaborations, such as with the Super73 electric motorbike, and just unveiled a new joint project with another non-fashion brand, Samsung’s Music Frame speakers featuring Jiyongkim’s sun-bleached cloth panels.

Kim plans to open a flagship in Korea and hold exhibitions overseas, but is a little concerned: “Finding the right venue is challenging because the bar has been set so high through our past exhibitions.”

Open YY

Worn by the likes of Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber, and members of Blackpink, Open YY is one of Korea’s first brands to specialize in women’s streetwear. Sister designers Jiyoung and Boyoung Kim launched the brand four years ago in 2020, but they are by no means newcomers to the world of fashion.

Since the mid-2010s, the Kim sisters have been successful wholesalers in Seoul’s time-honored Dongdaemun fashion district. Clients included major domestic online shopping malls as well as a big overseas fashion platform. 

“We shared photos of our clothes on social media and were treated like a fashion brand. We thought we might as well launch our own brand,” said Boyoung Kim, the 41-year-old younger sister who handles media interviews as well as the overall aesthetic direction of the brand. Jiyoung Kim, who is two years older, mostly specializes in designing shoes, knits and accessories, but their roles are not fixed.

“My sister likes to look at a broad range of research material while I like to dig deep into my personal taste. So we complement each other well,” she said. Their shared philosophy is quite simple: “We make clothes we want to wear.”

“We grew up in tiny rural towns that were seriously lacking in terms of fashion, arts and culture,” she said of their childhood in southern Korea. “When [Jiyoung] managed to bring home a fashion magazine, we would read through it again and again until we memorized every single item and brand name.”

Though Boyoung Kim initially worked as a flight attendant while Jiyoung Kim studied acting, the two naturally gravitated toward their love of fashion. Their diverse life experiences have allowed them to approach their designs with “an open mind,” as reflected in the name of the brand. Its recent collaboration with Hello Kitty, for example, came about because the Kim sisters believed the cuteness of the Sanrio character would be fun to juxtapose with the brand’s somewhat masculine, gender-neutral looks.

Open YY now has around 150 stockists around the world, from Assembly New York and Ssense in North America to Cycle Platform, Le Labo and Red Boutique in Europe.

It recently opened a shop-in-shop at Gentle Monster’s Haus Nowhere in Shanghai, which is not surprising since about a third of the brand’s stockists are Chinese. Overseas sales accounted for just 4 percent of Open YY’s profit in 2021, but that skyrocketed 500 percent in 2022 to reach 31 percent last year.

Tourists also make up a large part of the Seoul flagship’s clientele, which is diverse in terms of age demographic. “I’ve seen mother and daughter shopping together at our store and a growing number of male fans are tagging us in their Instagram posts,” said Boyoung Kim. “I believe our streetwear can be ageless and genderless.”