Gucci picks Korean royal palace for 2024 collection

Seoul is emerging as a new venue for global luxury brands’ fight for pride, with Louis Vuitton and Gucci set to unveil their new fashion collections in the capital city of South Korea.

This Saturday, Louis Vuitton will present its pre-fall 2023 women’s collection on a bridge over the Han River. It will mark the French brand’s first pre-fall show to be held in the Asian country.

On May 16, Gucci will stage its Cruise 2024 show at Gyeongbokgung Palace, a landmark royal palace built during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) in Seoul, the company said on Friday.

In addition to the fact that the two luxury brands are premiering their new collections in Seoul, the venues of their choice – a bridge next to a modern landmark architecture and a national heritage palace – are unconventional catwalks for fashion brands.

Gucci’s fashion show at Gyeongbokgung will be the first such event to be held for a single foreign brand at the palace at the heart of Seoul.

The runway will be prepared in front of the palace’s main hall, Geunjeongjeon. It was the main venue for royal ceremonies and for receiving foreign dignitaries during the Joseon Dynasty.

Gucci has been working on the May 16 show to mark its 25th year anniversary in South Korea since it opened its first store in Seoul in 1998.

To win approval for the fashion show at the historic site, Gucci has pledged a three-year donation to restore and preserve Gyeongbokgung with South Korea’s Cultural Heritage Administration.

The heritage administration initially had refused Gucci’s request to hold its Cruise 2024 collection at the palace.

Last year, it faced a backlash after Vogue Korea released its Korean traditional dress Hanbok pictorial shot at the former presidential Blue House. The transformed and flamboyant dresses, including a Japanese designer's outfit, met with severe criticism.

Marco Bizzarri, Gucci’s global chairman and chief executive, is speculated to attend the Cruise 2024 collection next month.

He was supposed to appear at its Seoul show originally scheduled for November 2022. The November runway event was called off after the tragic Halloween crowd crush in Seoul killed more than 150 people in October.

For Louis Vuitton, its Saturday show on the Jamsu Bridge over the Han River will feature an illuminated fountain performance. It rented all facilities on the man-made floating island Some Sevit next to the bridge.

Louis Vuitton and Gucci were among the first-generation luxury brands introduced in the country, along with Chanel and Hermes. They opened shops in Seoul in the 1990s.

South Korea is the world’s seventh-largest luxury brand consumption market, where high-end brand sales had proved even more resilient during the pandemic than China.

Write to Ji-Yoon Yang at yang@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article