In this article, I will tell you how I was involved in the strategy and why Valentino's plan is to reach a youth audience and create cultural collaborations, and the goal is to become an integral part of South Korea's fashion culture.

Fashion, style and image is not only an aesthetic decision but also a rational one. My goal is to combine these two aspects in my work so that clothing not only adorns a person but also communicates their values. After realizing this, I started to develop myself in the fashion industry.

This year I had a big breakthrough - I took part in the development of the Valentino fashion house's entry strategy for the South Korean market. This was part of my Master's degree at the world-renowned Marangoni Institute in Milan. My mentor was the brand director of the house, Alessio Vannetti. I worked in a team of 3 people.

One of the trends in Korean luxury is the demand for experiences. For them, luxury is social capital. In promoting the Valentino collection, they relied on the influencers who are most influential in Korea - musicians and young businessmen. For example, BTS (Bangatan Sonyeondan) is a South Korean big band, each member has their own exceptional style. They have established themselves as fashion icons not only in their own country. The trend of pop groups has become a religion and an obsession: people are passionate about being like them and follow the recommendations without looking back.

Therefore, the target audience for Valentino's capsule collection is Millennials (25-39 years old) and Generation Z (15-25 years old). To better understand their needs, we studied the local market and specifically the phenomenon of Hallyu (Korean wave) - the mass penetration of local culture into the Western world. Bright examples: doramas and K-Pop.

This is the target audience most often interested in luxury in South Korea. Showing off wealth is not considered shameful. A McKinsey survey conducted in 2022 showed that only 22% of Korean respondents believe that flaunting luxury goods is bad form.

After the pandemic, it was clear that South Korea was about to become one of the world's fashion centers, as it is one of the world's largest markets. The country's high purchasing power has also become an important driver for high fashion houses. According to Morgan Stanley, the average Korean spends $325 a year on luxury goods - more than anyone else in the world. South Koreans' total spending on luxury goods has grown by about 24% year-on-year to $16.8 billion in 2022.

The logical solution was to enter the market as soon as possible. We studied other players in the RTW (pret-a-porter) clothing market. Prada and Fendi entered the South Korean market earlier. Compared to them, Valentino lagged behind only in recognition and price policy (it was a bit lower). But we did not plan to compete with these brands: the style and presentation of the brand is different.

Shopping centers are very developed in South Korea. Sales of luxury brands there accounted for more than 30% of total sales: for example, in 2021, this figure reached 6.3 trillion won (4.5 billion euros), according to Statista. Therefore, we chose the locations of the main shopping centers, Jeju, Sinsegae, Lotte, Hyundai, and the International Convention Center (ICC). The online exhibition was hosted on the e-commerce platform Kakao.

In my opinion, the South Korean market is more complex: it is very fast growing and evolving. In Italy, for example, you can still find paper checks in many coffee shops and restaurants; there is a lot of "old money". France has a great appreciation for tradition; in public places you may not even be able to get an answer because you don't know English. South Korea is ready for anything new, especially fashion.

During my six months of analytical work, I researched many different sources. This has given me an insight into the market, but it's not just about demand or trends, it's about the people themselves. Behind many big fashion brands there are very local ideas, habits and stories of people.

Because of the mentality, the promotion of the Valentino brand was organically combined with a focus on local family values, which we conveyed in the collections. A key aspect is the connection with the Chusok holiday. This is a traditional fall harvest festival during which Korean families gather.

It was important to find common ground to understand what young people like both in the West and in the East. After all, the former are more exposed to the spirit of freedom, matriarchy, and feminism; they hardly follow anything imposed by a group.

I also studied many scientific articles about analyzing the genetic body shape of the inhabitants using 3D anthropometry. This gave insight into what type of body shape is characteristic of the national character. There are certain elements of a nation's genetic physique: height, body proportions, hip volume, which influenced, for example, the silhouette of a low-waisted article.

In Korea, there is a completely different approach to choosing clothes. It was on this project that I realized the key difference between the Russian, European and Asian approaches.

The result of our work was a market entry strategy. We successfully presented it to the House's brand director. Valentino plans to enter the South Korean market.