Fashion Genius Collects Stars - Chapter 127



Only Noblemtl

Episode 127: What kind of bag should I make?

I’m actually a patriot.

I was born in South Korea and grew up seeing all kinds of bad things, but I still think this country is great.

For example, it is like this.

More than 80 years after the end of the Korean War, the global luxury goods market has reached a size of 700 trillion won.

Among them, the size of the domestic market in South Korea alone is 40 trillion won.

As such, our country was one of the countries that consumed a lot of luxury goods.

There are so many people who secretly dislike this social phenomenon, knowingly or unknowingly.

But I wasn’t particularly interested in whether buying luxury goods was worth the money or not.

The problem that makes my heart beat with the blood of a patriot runs through it is that domestic brands have almost no share in the 40 trillion won luxury goods market. Just thinking about it makes my head swell with blood.

no.

You say our country is also a developed country?

You say that this is a country that lives off exports?

But if you look at it only in terms of the luxury goods market, isn’t it no different from a colony?!

My patriotic genes simply could not tolerate this fact.

In fact, my plan to develop into a luxury brand was mixed with this psychology of mine, whether I knew it or not.

We will improve our deficit-ridden balance by making really good luxury goods.

No. Rather, it will turn into a profit!

Up until now, overseas brands have been stealing tens of trillions from Korea every year… … It would be good to start with our export target of 50 trillion!

Of course, this was by no means a rational decision.

50 trillion. The only luxury goods company that generates that much in sales is France’s LVMH.

The combined sales of famous luxury brands owned by the company, including Louis Vuitton, Dior, Celine, and Tiffany.

But I think that the force that moves people is emotion, not reason.

When emotions set a goal first, reason finds a way to achieve it. Isn’t that the way people move forward?

So I set a grand goal of conquering the global luxury market.

I was determined to leave a distinct footprint on that road through this collaboration with School Zone.

Every day I draw a new design, scrap it, redraw it again, and scrap it again.

As I was carefully working on the design, sweating and shedding tears, I suddenly had this thought.

‘But why do people buy luxury bags?’

It felt like I got hit in the back of the head.

Actually, I wonder if I had forgotten the basics?

I wonder if I’ve been so caught up in the fun of looking at ideal types and observing the flow of people’s subconscious that I’ve ended up skipping over the first thing I should have thought about as a product seller.

I was in deep trouble.

why.

Why buy luxury goods?

Actually, I didn’t know that it might not be a problem to worry about.

Since the time when humans first evolved from monkeys, they have desired pretty and special things.

Even back in the days when people broke rocks to make hand axes, didn’t people like to collect shiny seashells and rough pebbles to decorate their bodies?

To buy a nice house,

To buy a nice car,

What on earth are the reasons for buying luxury watches and bags?

I guess I just live because it’s good.

This answer is not wrong, but I somehow feel like it is too simplistic.

To be honest, the prices of luxury goods, which are called luxury goods, are too expensive to just say, “I just buy them because I like them.”

If a person earning 4 million won a month says he bought a 200,000 won item ‘just because he liked it’, then that’s understandable.

But if that person buys a luxury bag worth 2 million won, no, 4 million won, or even 8 million won… … things get complicated.

Even if there are quite a few such people, rather than just one or two, there is even more to think about.

The word ‘good.’ What exactly does that mean?

What is good?

I felt like I needed to know this.

From then on, I started asking questions to people around me.

“Ms. Whiya. What kind of luxury bag do you like, Ms. Whiya?”

When I asked her this, she answered with wide eyes.

“Huh? I don’t know much about luxury bags.”

“Oh? Really?”

“yes.”

“Is there anything you want to buy?”

“Yes. I don’t have money.”

Lee Hwi-ya, smiling brightly and revealing his poverty.

I always felt that way, but he didn’t seem like an ordinary person.

“Well. So even if you have money, you won’t buy it?”

“I should buy it when I have money.”

“Oh? Really? What kind?”

“Well, I guess I’ll have to wait until I have money to find out. I don’t know right now.”

Looking into her brightly blinking eyes, I felt a sense of gloom.

“Then… why do you want to buy it when you have money? It doesn’t seem like there’s anything you really want to buy right now.”

At my words, Lee Hwi-ya thought for a moment and then answered quietly.

“Everyone says that. It’s good to have at least one. Since everyone says that, I thought there must be a reason. So I’m going to buy at least one. If it doesn’t work for me, I can just not buy it next time. If it does, I can think about it then.”

“aha.”

One of the things Lee Hwi-ya said really stuck in my ear.

‘Everyone says that. It’s good to have one.’

It was something called ‘awareness’.

Is it because the culture of consuming luxury bags has already spread so widely that people are becoming more tolerant of buying one just for the experience?

Maybe it’s similar to traveling abroad.

If you go once, you can easily lose millions of won, sometimes even tens of millions of won, but since many people go there, I want to go there at least once.

So, it is a kind of infinite driving force that expands the consumer base and thus secures new loyal customers.

As I thought about this, I suddenly felt a bitter taste in my mouth.

‘In this concept, is definitely at a disadvantage.’

When approaching it from the perspective of an experience that is worth trying at least once, people make safe choices.

It is a strategy to try out an experience that is equivalent to the ‘average’ in that field once and then judge the next time.

For example, people who decide to travel abroad at least once rarely suddenly decide to go to places like Mongolia, Nepal, South Africa, or Russia.

The first experience is to make the well-known ‘safe’ choice.

Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Europe… … .

The brands that currently occupy that position in the luxury bag industry are brands like Chanel and Louis Vuitton.

The probability that someone who is buying a luxury handbag for the first time will suddenly buy a bag like the collaboration between and School Zone is low.

‘Well… … Still. It’s not like there’s no chance at all.’

Still, what was a little comforting was that the school zone’s reputation was growing.

If the kids make a successful comeback here, the collaboration bag could be mentioned quite often.

So, even if it was your first time buying a bag, if you had enough affection for School Zone, there was a good chance that you would consider buying it.

Originally, it would be worthless, but it opens up possibilities.

And my role is to not betray those who have worked so hard to open their hearts.

“Thank you, Hwiya. It was a good reference.”

“Hey, what is it? I feel embarrassed because I think I answered a bit strangely.”

After talking with Lee Hwi-ya like that, I talked with Seong Jin-hee, who had come to the store for the first time in a long time.

“Why do you buy luxury handbags? Because they’re pretty!”

Seong Jin-hee answered just as I expected.

“First of all, when you first look at it, you have to like the shape. The lines and three-dimensionality that great designers create are fun to look at. And depending on the material, it’s even more fun.”

Her eyes sparkled and she started talking wildly before I could continue asking questions.

“What is the material? Is it leather, PVC, synthetic, canvas, or something else unique? Depending on these, the taste changes greatly. Among them, the best is leather, but is it crocodile skin, lamb skin, what part of the leather it is, how it is processed… … ! The possibilities are truly endless.”

Listening to her excited voice, I could notice another thing.

“Ah! I see. It’s only natural that there would be a fan base!”

The attitude she was showing now was familiar to me.

For example, Dongwook hyung was so into electronics that he would buy all kinds of electronics that he wouldn’t even use. There were different types of smartwatches, and there were about 10 different keyboards. There was the blue switch, the low-noise red switch, the click and non-click linear type… When my hyung talked about the specs of those things, it was just like Sungjinhee right in front of me.

okay.

People like well-made things.

A person who likes watches.

A person who likes fountain pens.

A person who likes knives.

I used to get excited and feel an intense possessiveness over small details that other people might not notice.

It may be natural that the value of luxury handbags is essentially born from the desires of such a core group.

And this is the part I was confident about.

Standout design, top-quality materials, and exceptional quality.

Our collaboration product had to appeal to a dedicated audience.

“Thank you. It was helpful.”

After talking with Sung Jin-hee, I also called Seon Hye-in, the executive producer of School Zone.

“Is it a luxury bag?”

The story she told had a creator’s perspective.

“It’s a bit similar to raising a dog or a cat.”

“A dog? A cat?”

“Yes. I think people who raise cats would talk about something if they got together.”

“… …Are you going to talk about cats?”

“Right? My cat is like this. Right? My house is like this. Do you want to see a picture of my cat? Oh, she’s cute. There’s also a video of my cat. You should check it out too. Oh, look how cute it is. Oh, there’s a video of the cat I saw a while ago. Oh! That’s interesting! I saw it too. That’s what we say.”

“Right.”

“It’s the same with luxury bags. When the kids who carry them get together, they show each other their bags, take turns looking at bags that they’ve been eyeing lately, and talk about when someone bought this for them or when they bought it with their own money as a souvenir, and share related memories, and sometimes share knowledge about the details of the bags… … It just becomes a topic of conversation and fun in itself.”

“ah…….”

I felt like my head was being blown open here.

Luxury bags become a ‘community’ in themselves.

And this was an effect of tremendous power.

When a game or broadcast becomes popular, don’t you often find yourself playing that game or watching that broadcast to hang out with your friends, even if it’s not particularly fun?

Surprisingly, luxury bags played exactly that role. And since there are quite a few people in our country who buy luxury bags, the size of the community was also large, and its utility also increased accordingly.

And in this regard, the collaboration with School Zone had a very advantageous aspect.

‘Because the fact that it’s a collaboration bag with School Zone is a story in itself.’

So what I have to do is… … put more stories into the bags that are made. So that the person who buys this can hang out with his friends and talk about what kind of bag this is and what kind of story it tells.

“Thank you, Director Seonhyein.”

“you’re welcome.”

After I hung up the phone, the world I saw again seemed a little clearer.

Now I feel like I have a clear idea of ​​what kind of bag I should make.

First of all, rather than targeting first-time bag buyers, we create bags with solid quality and design targeting collectors.

This is what I’ve been doing so far.

What’s important is what comes next.

We had to make our bags the topic of conversation, which would lead to endless stories.

This was the part that had a truly enormous ripple effect.

Making it a hot topic. Making people research it and buy it in order to be part of that hot topic.

It was something I hadn’t thought about until now, so I had to pay more attention to it from now on.

“good!”

With this, the School Zone collaboration bag design work has reached its final stages.

……. (continue)