During a discussion held on the 11th at the Westin Josun in Seoul as part of the 2025 Consumer and Retail Forum titled “Sustainability of K Brands,” Kim Sung-jun, Vice President of Simmons Brand Strategy Planning Division, opened the conversation.
The panel discussion featured Vice President Kim as the chair, alongside Colin Marshall, columnist for The New Yorker; Lee Jun-sung, head of strategy at HAGOHAUS; Choi Jung-hee, CEO of Andersson Bell; and Lee Seung-min, CEO of Amuse. The panelists shared their experiences in global expansion of K-fashion and K-beauty brands, discussing the sustainability of Korean brands.
Amuse, a vegan beauty brand, is a make-up specialty brand that has become popular in Japan. It was acquired by Shinsegae International last year. HAGOHAUS operates brands like Matin Kim, which is one of the K-fashion leaders with a store in Tokyo, Japan. Andersson Bell is a Korean fashion brand operating over 130 stores in 35 countries worldwide.
When asked about the strengths of K-beauty and the secrets to Amuse’s success, Lee Seung-min, CEO of Amuse, cited the brand’s quick response to trends. The current popularity of K-beauty in the U.S. and Japan has been driven by indie brands like Amuse. Lee is managing Amuse independently after the merger and continues to lead its operations.
Lee noted, “In the K-beauty market, where around 50,000 brands compete, Amuse has increased its presence by leading trends like the keyring (keychain) culture and responding quickly to market changes.” He added, “To survive in the global market, it requires a sophisticated strategy accompanied by brand identity and sensibility. Being an indie brand that is smaller than large corporations allowed us to be agile and generate results,” continuing, “At the point where we needed a system due to our growth, we established a foundation for moving to the next stage through timely mergers and acquisitions.”
Collaborations with famous global brands are emerging as an important strategy to solidify the position of K-brands. Andersson Bell has established its brand value in the global market through collaborations with Asics and Zara. Matin Kim, another notable player that recently opened an offline store in Tokyo, gained attention after collaborating with Coach. Amuse achieved record sales through collaborations with popular characters like Hello Kitty.
Choi Jung-hee, CEO of Andersson Bell, said, “The priority is to first grow the brand, and collaboration serves as a mechanism to amplify opportunities in that process.” She noted that during her first collaboration with Asics, they put in a lot of effort as the brand was small at that time. After investing 1 billion won to host a Milan show, requests for collaboration from famous global brands began to increase significantly.
She added, “To grow the brand, rather than just using famous celebrities, I wanted to enhance the fashion brand’s identity and persuaded internal opposition to hold a show. After a couple of successful collaborations with global partners, more collaboration proposals keep coming in.”
Lee Jun-sung, Deputy Minister, mentioned the case of Matin Kim’s entry into Japan, explaining, “At a time when interest in Korean brands among Japanese consumers was rising, we had the luck of entering the market at just the right time.” He emphasized that “expanding overseas is not something a brand can handle alone; a structure of information linkage and policy collaboration at the governmental level must be in place.”
The panelists agreed that for K-brands to be sustainable, a brand philosophy and cultural roots that transcend short-term trends are necessary. The CEO added, “While entry is easy, moving on to the next stage requires leadership in organizational strength and branding, not just one hit product.”
Choi emphasized, “Korea’s era has arrived after passing through Hong Kong noir, Japanese culture, and American culture; the real battle begins now,” adding that “While what Korean brands express as ‘1’ has the effect of ‘3’ on the global stage, to truly become sustainable brands, more efforts and challenges are needed.”
The Deputy Minister also stated, “Sustainability is only possible when not just individual brands succeed, but when K-fashion, K-food, K-beauty, and others succeed together.” Colin Marshall remarked, “The kind of ‘jam-bong’ of emotions and genres that Korean content presents is its global competitiveness. We need to make good use of these differentiating points.”