South Korea’s Handsome Co., fashion unit of the nation’s leading retail company Hyundai Department Store Group, is expected to open official stores of its two brands in Galeries Lafayette in Paris next year for the first time as an Asian fashion label.

According to the fashion industry Tuesday, Handsome’s cashmere brand “The Cashmere” and men’s apparel “System Homme” are preparing to open their shops in Galeries Lafayette next year. Their forays will mark the first entrance of Asian fashion houses opening official stores to the French luxury department store with a 122-year history that is visited by more than 30 million shoppers from the country and overseas every year, an unnamed official at the French department store said.

Until now, many Asian brands have failed to meet sophisticated and picky standards of fashion merchandisers of Galeries Lafayette, ending up opening a pop-up store or joining select store at best.

The unusual achievements of the Handsome brands were made possible after a fashion merchandiser of Galeries Lafayette happened to visit The Cashmere outlet in the Korean department store. She flew back to Paris and did more research on the brand by visiting the Handsome’s multi-brand shop in Paris, according to a company official at Handsome. In early September, the Korean fashion company did presentations about “The Cashmere” and “System Homme” to officials at Galeries Lafayette.

The Cashmere is a cashmere clothing and accessory label that earned nearly 10 billion won (8.96 million) in sales in four months since its launch in August last year. System Homme gained popularity after the country’s hot celebrity Song Joong Ki, who starred in a hit drama “the Descendants of the Sun”, showed up wearing its clothes many times.

By Park In-hye

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