Kimhekim founder eyes global 'Korean luxury' brand on 10th anniversary

"I want Kimhekim to be not just a brand that exists in Korea, but a brand for people around the world — one that started in Korea but belongs to every city on the globe."

Kim In-tae, founder of designer fashion label Kimhekim, is setting his sights on building a "Korean luxury" brand as the label marks its 10th anniversary. His confidence is grounded in a strategic pivot: diversifying overseas sales channels and shifting toward direct-to-consumer business at a time when China-centered wholesale markets have faltered and several domestic designer brands that launched around the same time have since closed.

Speaking to The Herald Business on Tuesday at the Kimhekim studio in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, Kim said annual sales grew 5 to 6 percent for two consecutive years through 2025, with business-to-consumer revenue more than doubling. "Targeting the global market from the outset, and sensing the wholesale slowdown early enough to pivot to B2C, made all the difference," he said.

Kimhekim is a designer fashion brand incorporated in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, that designs and produces women's clothing and accessories for domestic and international markets. Annual sales stand at around 5 billion won ($3.62 million). Kim launched the brand alone in 2016; it now employs about 20 people. After establishing a production-and-export model, the brand grew primarily through China between 2017 and 2019 before expanding into Italy, Canada and Japan. It converted to a corporation in 2021 and currently operates the Cheongdam flagship store and a Shinsegae duty-free outlet.

For Kim, beauty begins with adornment. "Adornment is recognizing what makes you different from others and expressing your inner self outwardly — and when that is elevated into art, it becomes decorative art," he said. The pearl, Kimhekim's signature decorative material, embodies this philosophy. "Because adornment is joy itself, I want to define Kimhekim as a brand that pursues the pleasures of life," he added.

The brand's name carries the same philosophy. It is drawn from Kim's ancestral clan name, the Gimhae Kim clan, and is rooted in the decorative arts and craftsmanship of the ancient Gaya kingdom, which flourished around the Gimhae area. "Looking at the gayageum, earthenware and gold crowns, you can see that Gaya had a remarkable mastery of decorative art," Kim said. "I wanted to carry forward that passion for decorative art from 2,000 years ago."

This year, the brand will hold its first fashion show in Seoul. Kimhekim will participate in the 2027 S/S Seoul Fashion Week, running Tuesday through Sept. 6, and will unveil its 10th-anniversary collection, "Seoul Light," in Jamsil on Tuesday. It will be the brand's first solo domestic show after years of focusing on overseas stages such as Paris.

"I've been to many cities, but few bring together people as dynamic and passionate as Seoul," Kim said. "I wanted to capture that energy of Seoul through light, while also showcasing key designs from the past 10 years — the moments when Kimhekim shone brightest." The brand has been preparing the show for about two months.

"Traveling through Paris, Milan and Tokyo, I realized I had never properly shown my collection to my family, and to people in Korea and Seoul," Kim said. "That makes holding our first show in Seoul especially meaningful."

The design inspiration Kim prizes most is the beauty that emerges from unexpected moments — and nothing illustrates this better than Kimhekim's signature pearl. "A foreign particle enters a shell, creates a wound, and as the shell wraps around it, a beautiful pearl is born," he said.

"So I try to stay sensitive to every moment," he said. He draws ideas from books, films, music and exhibitions, but also from conversations and jokes with his staff. Once, while stringing pearls, a thread snapped and hundreds of pearls scattered across the floor. "It was funny, going around picking them up one by one with the team," Kim recalled. "But I also found beauty in watching something we had carefully made come apart by accident."

That moment became a pearl performance on the Paris runway in 2023, when atelier team members cut the threads of pearl-adorned pieces mid-show, sending pearls cascading across the stage. "The response was great, and it really helped put Kimhekim on the map," Kim said.

His current design keyword is "military princess," inspired by a childhood photograph of himself playing with a Barbie doll in his father's gun shop. "A boy surrounded by threatening weapons, finding joy in a pretty doll — I felt that image captured my identity and Kimhekim's perfectly," he said. The concept blends military elements with ornate, feminine aesthetics.

The road has not always been smooth. The global fashion wholesale market that once drove the brand's growth has itself come under pressure. "Designer brands that started around the same time went through the same difficulties and ended up closing," Kim said. "Trademark disputes and the ban on Korean cultural content in China hit at the same time, and Kimhekim's sales fell in 2023."

The brand regained its footing by restructuring its business model — reducing dependence on China, diversifying overseas sales channels and shifting from wholesale to direct-to-consumer. "Sales grew 5 to 6 percent for two consecutive years through 2025, and B2C revenue more than doubled," Kim said. "Targeting the global market from the start, and pivoting to B2C early after sensing the wholesale slowdown, were the key factors."

Kim also offered suggestions for nurturing Korean fashion brands more broadly. "You encounter Chanel or Louis Vuitton naturally in department stores, but for domestic brands, consumers have to seek out a showroom themselves," he said, calling on the public sector to create more opportunities — department store placements, pop-up spaces — for Korean labels to reach consumers. He added that he travels overseas about five times a year for fashion shows and showrooms, and must carry dresses weighing 20 to 30 kilograms on each flight. "The current government emphasizes taking K-culture global, so it would be great to see stronger support for the recurring costs of overseas activities — airfare, logistics and accommodation," he said.

Looking ahead, Kim plans to expand directly operated stores at home and abroad. Domestically, he aims to open a new store in Hannam as early as next year and is considering a move into Busan. The longer-term goal is to open flagship stores in Paris, Milan, New York, Tokyo and Shanghai — not as simple retail outlets, but as spaces where visitors can experience Kimhekim's world of decorative art.