A New Era for Fashion β and Korea Is Right in the Middle of It
If you've been paying attention to the global fashion world lately, you've probably noticed something interesting: the industry is being disrupted from multiple directions all at once. Artificial intelligence is forcing brands to rethink how they operate. K-pop is rewriting the rules of who gets to set trends. And a new generation of running shoe brands is quietly eating into market share that Nike and Adidas have held for decades. This week, all three of those stories converged in a big way β and Korea is central to each of them.
So let's break it all down.
Seoul's Fashion Forum Asks the Big AI Question
On May 22nd, the Korea Fashion Association held its 2026 Global Fashion Forum at the Grand Hyatt Seoul, drawing over 200 attendees β CEOs, brand executives, designers, and industry insiders from across the retail and manufacturing sectors. The theme this year? "Fashion Management in the Age of AI Agents." And honestly, it's a theme that applies well beyond Korea's borders.
Sung Rae-eun, the chairperson of the Korea Fashion Association, opened the forum with a message that set the tone for the entire day.
"AI technology is now a new competitive advantage for the fashion industry and a core element of future growth. The fashion industry is facing a paradigm shift within a rapidly changing technological environment."
The forum is co-organized by Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and it's designed to help domestic fashion companies figure out how to navigate a global market that's changing faster than most companies can keep up with.
Don't Just Give Everyone an AI Tool β Rebuild the Work Itself
The keynote speaker was Kim Yeon-hee, a managing partner at Boston Consulting Group Korea β one of the world's top management consulting firms. And she came with a clear message for fashion executives who think that simply handing out AI tools to their teams is enough.
"Adopting AI does not mean results come immediately. Companies need to go beyond distributing AI tools to employees and instead fundamentally reshape their core operational structures around AI."
What's really interesting here is the distinction she's drawing. There's a big difference between using AI as a productivity add-on and actually redesigning how a company functions with AI at its core. Kim argued that fashion companies need to do the latter β and that those who don't will fall behind.
She also introduced a concept that's going to become increasingly important: "AI agentic commerce." This is the idea that AI is no longer just helping people browse products β it's actively participating in the discovery, recommendation, and purchasing process. According to Kim, roughly 80 percent of consumers in the United States are already using AI in some form during their shopping journey, and AI is driving significant retail traffic and conversions as a result.
Her practical advice for brands? Start optimizing for generative AI search engines, not just traditional search. She called this "GEO" β Generative Engine Optimization β the fashion-world equivalent of SEO, but for a world where consumers are asking ChatGPT or similar tools what to buy rather than typing keywords into Google.
Fashion Still Has a Soul β Even in the Age of Agents
The forum also featured a special lecture from Anthony Choi, CEO of Provenance, a consumer brand investment firm with a global portfolio. He painted an optimistic picture of AI's expanding role across trend analysis, personalized recommendations, inventory management, and customer segmentation.
But he also pushed back on the idea that AI will take over everything. "Agentic AI doesn't mean delegating the entire shopping process," he said, noting that fashion is fundamentally about the joy of discovery and the emotional value that brands create. That's a refreshingly grounded perspective in a conversation that can sometimes get carried away with tech hype.
K-Pop Is Rewriting Fashion's Power Structure
Meanwhile, on the other side of the fashion world, something equally significant is happening β and it was on full display at this year's Met Gala in New York on May 4th.
The Met Gala, for those who aren't familiar, is basically the Oscars of the fashion world. Organized by Vogue's editor-in-chief Anna Wintour β yes, the real-life inspiration for Miranda Priestly in "The Devil Wears Prada" β it's an annual fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. Tickets run over $100,000 each, and getting invited is its own kind of status symbol.
One of the most talked-about moments at this year's event? Karina (Yoo Ji-min), a member of the K-pop group aespa, stepping out in a Prada gown. But here's the detail that really matters: Prada said the design was inspired by the hanbok, Korea's traditional garment, incorporating a cape drawn from Korean historical dress. So you had one of the world's biggest luxury brands using a K-pop star to showcase Korean cultural heritage on fashion's biggest stage. That's not a coincidence β that's a signal.
K-Pop Idols Are Now the Tastemakers
The broader shift here is seismic. American Vogue recently published a piece on what it called the "super-fan economy," noting that major fashion shows are now surrounded by crowds of fans holding banners and balloons β there to catch a glimpse of their favorite K-pop idol who has become a brand ambassador.
Think about what that means. For decades, fashion trends were set by designers and magazine editors, then filtered down through department stores and boutiques. Now, a single Instagram post from a K-pop star with a global fanbase can move markets in real time.
The numbers back this up. All four members of BLACKPINK β Jennie (Chanel), Jisoo (Dior), RosΓ© (Saint Laurent), and Lisa (Louis Vuitton) β were invited to this year's Met Gala. Each of them is the face of a major luxury house. That's not a K-pop story; that's a fashion industry story.
And it's not just the luxury brands paying attention. Tech giants are getting in on the action too. According to The Guardian, OpenAI, Meta, and Snap each spent at least $350,000 on tables at this year's Met Gala. Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin were all in attendance. For Big Tech, fashion is becoming a platform β connecting advertising, commerce, and fandom into a single revenue stream.
Korean Designer Brands Are Riding the Wave
What does all this mean for Korean designers specifically? Quite a lot, actually. The new landscape means that a Korean brand no longer needs to secure a spot in a prestigious European concept store or land a Vogue editorial to reach global consumers. A viral moment on social media, powered by K-pop connections and a well-executed pop-up store, can do the same job.
The numbers are encouraging. According to Trend Research, Korea's designer fashion industry was valued at approximately 1.357 trillion Korean won (roughly $1 billion USD) as of 2023, and it's been growing year over year. Around four in ten Korean designer brands have already had some form of international expansion experience.
Designers like Kim Hae Kim, who draws on Korean decorative arts traditions, are gaining recognition in overseas fashion circles as something more substantive than a novelty β as genuine creative voices with a distinct aesthetic rooted in Korean heritage. The Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) has been actively expanding its support for Korean brands going global, with a goal of building what they describe as "brands with sustainable sales competitiveness."
The Running Shoe War: Hoka and On Are Coming for Nike and Adidas
And then there's the sneaker story β which has real implications for the Korean market too, given how quickly both Hoka and On have been expanding here.
For years, the global athletic footwear market was essentially a two-horse race: Nike and Adidas. But that duopoly is showing cracks. Two specialist running brands β Hoka and On β have been putting up numbers that are genuinely turning heads on Wall Street.
Hoka's parent company, Deckers Outdoor (which also owns the UGG boot brand), just released guidance that beat analyst expectations. Deckers is projecting fiscal year 2027 revenue of between $5.86 billion and $5.91 billion β above the analyst consensus of $5.82 billion. Hoka brand sales grew 14.5 percent in the most recent quarter, and UGG wasn't far behind at 9.2 percent growth.
Meanwhile, Swiss brand On β known for its distinctive cushioned sole technology β raised its 2026 operating margin forecast from 18.5β19.0 percent to 19.5β20.0 percent after a strong first quarter. On's Q1 revenue came in at 831.9 million Swiss francs, up 26.4 percent year-on-year on a currency-adjusted basis. Most striking? Its Asia-Pacific revenue grew by 61.4 percent β driven largely by expansion in China and South Korea.
On has been making a deliberate play for younger, female consumers by signing actress Zendaya as a brand ambassador and launching a co-designed apparel line with her. The strategy is working. Co-CEO Caspar Coppetti called the early results "very encouraging."
The bigger story here is about what these brands represent: the idea that running shoes aren't just for running anymore. They're fashion objects, lifestyle statements, and increasingly, the kind of thing you'd see on the feet of someone heading to a coffee shop just as easily as someone on a race course.
The Takeaway
What ties all three of these stories together is a single underlying theme: the fashion industry's old rules no longer apply. AI is changing how brands operate internally. K-pop is changing who holds cultural and commercial influence. And challenger brands are proving that heritage and scale aren't enough to guarantee market dominance.
For Korea, this moment represents a genuine opportunity β not just to be a participant in global fashion, but to be one of its defining forces. The infrastructure is there. The cultural momentum is there. The question now is whether Korean brands, designers, and institutions can move fast enough to capitalize on it.
This article is based on reports from Naver News, Naver News, Etoday.
