S.Korea’s best-selling premium fashion brand Time to go global

Handsome Corp., a fashion house of South Korea’s major retailer Hyundai Department Store Group, will launch The Time, an upmarket collection for international fashionistas, as part of its efforts to nurture its flagship fashion brand as a global luxury name.

The company announced on Wednesday that it will launch the international line of its leading brand Time.

It will unveil The Time lineup during its in-house brand fashion show on Thursday. This will be the first standalone runway show for a Handsome brand since the inception of the fashion house in 1987.

The company plans to launch The Time abroad next year after its global debut during Paris Fashion Week, which is held twice a year in January and June, in Paris, France.

LUXURY LINEUP REINFORCEMENT

The move is part of the company’s efforts to groom Time as a global haute couture boutique that offers not only men’s and women’s clothes but also luxury accessories amid growing demand for high-end fashion.

Koreans’ love for upmarket brands shows no sign of receding despite the economic downturn.

Notably, millennials in their 20s and 30s have emerged as the main customers of luxury brands in the country.  

Time is Korea’s No. 1 fashion brand in terms of sales after it has become the first and only Korean fashion brand to reap more than 100 billion won ($77 million) in annual sales thanks to its premium looks.

The sales of its women’s and men’s lines, Time and Time Homme, reached 270 billion won and 100 billion won, respectively, in 2022.

Demand for its accessories, including handbags has also soared. Handsome is also reinforcing Time’s accessory lineup.

The Korean fashion house aims to boost Time’s sales to 500 billion won in five years with the launch of The Time.

LOOKING FOR ANOTHER LEAP

Time’s global push is also part of the new initiative driven by Hyundai Department Store Group Chairman Chung Ji-sun to redefine each business' operations to synchronize with the rapidly changing cultural and consumer landscapes.

It is seeking to take another big leap in the global market with a greater growth potential than the local market amid the ongoing Korea sensation in global pop culture.

Time’s foray into overseas markets is not an abrupt move. It formed a task force to tap the global market with a separate design division for The Time in 2020.

The team has developed new designs for The Time and uses different patterns and materials to cater to foreign consumers, a Handsome official said.

It has built a global sales network over the past 10 years, laying the groundwork for Time’s global foray.

Handsome opened Tom Greyhound Paris, a concept store featuring a select range of men’s and women’s designer clothing and accessories, in Haut Marais, the French capital’s main fashion district in 2014.

Its other fashion brands System and System Homme have presented at Paris Fashion Week every year since 2019, helping them clinch contracts with wholesale buyers from more than 20 countries.

Handsome owns 30 fashion brands including its flagship brands Time, Mine and System. It owns Korean operation licenses for Tommy Hilfiger and DKNY and is the distributor of international luxury brands such as Lanvin and Bally.

Time hit the Korean market in 1993.

Write to Ji-Yoon Yang at yang@hankyung.com


Sookyung Seo edited this article.