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As time passed, the brands were choosing a single member of a K-pop band to represent rather than going for the entire group. The members of major bands such as BTS and GOT7 are choosing to go with their separate careers. It is not just the bands that end up with global brand partnerships but also the solo singers from South Korea. Here are the notable fashion brand alliances of the solo K-pop singers.
IU, Jay Park, and Hwasa For Gucci
IU was appointed as the Korean ambassador for Gucci in February 2020. The brand posted this news with the additional information of IU attending its Fall Winter 2020 Collection launch. She was a part of the Gucci Beloved ad campaign and Holiday Gift Guides campaign in 2021. The singer was also spotted in the label’s 100th year at the Gucci Garden Archetypes exhibit in Seoul. She was chosen to be a global brand ambassador in May 2022. She was seen in a Gucci gown on the red carpet of the 75th Cannes Film Festival. Its tweet received 1261% higher likes than average on X. IU was in the Cruise 2024 show at Gyeongbokgung Palace. This show marked Gucci’s completion of 25 years in South Korea. The tweet of her arrival reached 183,6K views. In March 2023, IU featured in Harper’s Bazaar Korea with Gucci Deco Bag. The brand’s post on this shoot reached 308,9K views.
In November 2023, Gucci announced Jay Park would join as the new global ambassador. The announcement generated 632,4K views on X. He attended the brand’s Cruise 2024 show in Seoul. The tweet of his attendance reached 86,6K views.
Hwasa, a former member of the K-pop band MAMAMOO, worked with Gucci and Conde Nast for the ‘Reservation for One’ campaign in 2020. The campaign also included celebrities such as Kim Nayoung and Rain. The tweet about this campaign got 2,8K retweets and 5,5K likes.
Along with the Cruise 2024 show, the brand did other marketing campaigns such as featuring Squid Game's Lee Jung-Jae for Gucci Valigeria in August 2023, The 21 with Mina Shin and many more to engage the South Korean audience even more.
HyunA For Loewe
HyunA became the global ambassador for Loewe in July 2021. She was the face of the launch of the then-new Goya bag in the Fall Winter 2021 collection campaign. The singer was seen in the Pre-Fall 2022 campaign along with a cast of global fame. She modelled for the brand’s Spring Summer 2022 pre-collection for Harper's Bazaar Korea. Along with Dawn, HyunA arrived at the Menswear Spring Summer 2023 show at the Paris Fashion Week.
In September 2022, Loewe appointed the K-pop band NMIXX as its global brand ambassadors. The label also houses NCT’s Taeyong on its long list of global ambassadors.
Youngji For Coach
Coach appointed Youngji as the global brand ambassador in August 2023. Along with this collaboration, the brand released the shots from her Fall 2023 campaign for Vogue World. She was in the front row of the brand’s Spring 2024 show. The singer was starring in the #WearYourShine campaign. Its tweets’ views ranged from 6,3K to 31K and Instagram posts’ likes differed from 9,2K to 52,9K.
Kim Se-Jeong for Longchamp
In February 2023, Kim Se-Jeong was spotted to be the official ambassador of Longchamp in Asia. She debuted in the brand’s affairs with the Spring Summer 2023 campaign. The campaign posts reached 2988% higher views than average on X and a total of 37K likes on Instagram. The solo artist attended the TOILETPAPER event of the label in Seoul. Se-Jeong was all in Longchamp’s outfits for the cover photo shoot of the September 2023 digital issue of Harper’s Bazaar Korea.
ZICO for Fendi
ZICO became the official brand ambassador for the South Korean region of Fendi in May 2022. He was wearing the brand’s Men’s Summer Capsule 2022 collection for the announcement. The solo singer was seen in the Spring 2023 Menswear show at Milan Men’s Week. He attended the opening ceremony of the first flagship store of Fendi and its after-party in Seoul in February 2023. The post received 47,8K likes on Instagram and 62,7K views on X.
SUNMI and Kang Daniel for Puma
SUNMI was selected to be the ambassador of PUMA Korea in March 2020. Before the announcement, they released the PUMA x SUNMI campaign in February 2020. She was in the brand’s ‘Rider’ campaign, the 2020 Winter campaign, and the 2021 TX-3 series.
In January 2020, PUMA Korea announced its partnership with Kang Daniel as the brand ambassador.
Suzy Bae for Dior
Suzy Bae is the house ambassador of Dior. She did the famous “What’s in Her Lady Dior bag” trend in June 2021. It touched 771K views and 22K likes on YouTube. Bae attended the Fall Winter 2022 show of Dior in Seoul which received 6,5K likes on X. Earlier than that, she was spotted in the label’s Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall Winter 2019-20 show.
Kang Daniel for Chanel, Louis Vuitton and RIMOWA
Chanel picked Kang Daniel to be the new face of the jewellery line in June 2018. He was posing with the fine jewellery and watches for the Elle July issue. He collaborated with Chanel again in June 2020 as the influencer for the Paris-Deauville fragrance.
Kang Daniel was one of the main models for the Louis Vuitton Twist handbag campaign prior to the opening of the Louis Vuitton Twist Bag Pop-Up Store in Seoul in April 2019. It reached 1,9 million views and 3,5K likes on YouTube.
In October 2019, RIMOWA released its collaborative collection with Kang Daniel on Elle Korea (the post earned 15,4K likes and reel received 38K likes on Instagram page of the magazine) and Esquire Korea (the post reached 3,5K likes and reel touched 29,1K likes on Instagram).
Doyoung for Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana appointed Doyoung of NCT as its global brand ambassador in September 2023, after being the brand ambassador for Korea and Japan since May 2023. He featured in the recent Fall-Winter 2023 campaign of the brand. The campaign posts received the highest of 534K likes on Instagram. The label posted his appearance in the Spring Summer 2024 show in collaboration with the singer, which garnered 644K likes.
Cover image: HyunA for Loewe, IU for Gucci and Kim Se-Jeong for Longchamp, courtesy Loewe official X page, Gucci official website and Longchamp official X page respectively.