Hyundai Department Store's Handsome fashion brands come to Paris

By

Benjamin Fitzgerald

Published
Feb 10, 2017

South Korea's Hyundai Department Store will set up shop in Paris this week, opening a permanent System Homme concession and a pop-up until 10th March for its womenswear collection, under the group's Handsome fashion subsidiary, inside the French capital's Galeries Lafayette.

​Located on the second floor of the iconic Parisian department store's men's building, System Homme is sat next to premium brands Sandro Homme, Zadig & Voltaire and COS. 

According to a Hyundai Department Store spokesman, the System Homme retail partnership with the prestigious Paris department store is an Asian first, with many underground menswear labels from the east knocked back by Lafayette.

"It is very rare for a homegrown menswear brand that has not even participated in famous fashion shows to open its own shop in Lafayette,” the spokesman told a leading Korean daily. “It didn’t even go through a preliminary process such as opening a pop-up store or being introduced in select shops.”

Handsome fashion's womenswear offering System will also bow a Lafayette pop-up, just for a month from Friday. The brand is already being sold at L’oeil Des Galeries, and Hyundai is looking for a positive four-week sales period, to possibly obtain a permanent stint, just like its menswear line.

The Handsome fold has witnessed rapid overseas expansion in the past twelve months. Both System brands entered China last month after a partnership announcement with Hangzhou Zhiheng Industrial last October. 

With the China venture Handsome projects 50 points of sale for China and 150 billion won ($130.76 million) in total sales by 2020. It plans to bow ten System and System Homme stores in Hangzhou, before expanding in to Beijing and Shanghai during 2017.

The news follows the announcement in late 2016 that parent firm Hyundai Department Store had acquired SK Networks’ fashion operations for KRW326.1 billion ($284 million).

SKN is a major importer of global labels such as Tommy Hilfiger, DKNY, Club Monaco and American Eagle. However, it also owns a number of house-brands, including Obzee, O’2nd and Rouge & Lounge.

The buyout makes Hyundai Department Store the largest fashion group in South Korea.