we have a lot of questions about recent rises of luxury fashion houses' ambassador reqruitment, and an article from Business of Fashion probably insightful not from kpop industry point of view, but from fashion know-hows.
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tl;dr:
- the rise of Korean celebrities as luxury brand ambassadors coincides with 40 percent growth of sales compared to pre-pandemic in South Korea and overall rise in eastern, south-eastern Asia region
- Korean pop culture as whole (not only music) is in the height of global popularity, recorded that caused their celebrity to be hired (so popularity -> engagement -> ambassador, unlike influencers' engagement -> popularity -> ambassador)
- acknowledgment that Kpop idols is one of savviest celebrity group when it comes to social media engagement and yield the best result, even compared to kardashians (40 percent of total engagement of milan's 2021 f/w fashion week, which is fascinating bc i don't know if milan brands hire idols as ambassador that season)
- fashion high ups do gossip lol they also talk about bottega veneta's supposed deal with RM
- Kpop idol's strict image control and open communication regarding brand to fans makes them favorable as ambassadors.
- Kpop idols, unlike many western celebrity, is enthusiastic for using fashion brand as identifiers and self-expressions, so their ambassadorship read as more genuine.
personally, i never think about the last two points as something that tipped the favor to kpop idols. those "human gucci" and "human chanel" people cringe on actually helps them secure deal lmaooo. and opinions said "fashion deals is not as exclusive anymore" is not entirely true, it is still strictly selected. but more likely the consumers who happens to know kpop idols becoming luxury brands' priority.
what do you think?
