As someone who loves Fashion, I really wish companies/idols would stop with these brand ambassadorships/fashion house partnerships
And before you say it, no, it’s not JUST because the fits never serve.
(WARNING, LONG POST AHEAD)
Now, I’m someone who loves fashion, I love it as an art form, form of expression, I love talking about fashion. Also, although my interest and respect for High end brands has decreased significantly over the years, I still recognize and appreciate their impact and the strong visual identity they’re designers have created (despite the near universal drop in quality).
However, the sheer ubiquity of luxury brand ambassadorships and endorsements in K-pop for the past 5 or so years has me tired and rolling my eyes for a multitude of reasons. Sorry if these points feel rushed or underdeveloped, they are kinda, but I just wanted to get my raw thoughts out before they slipped my mind.
1. Promotes hyper-consumerism of luxury brands: It contributes to these wider notions that to be fashionable, you need to adorn these luxury brands. South Korea is especially known for its hyper consumeristic culture when it comes to luxury brands, and I fear that these brand ambassadorships only exacerbate this issue. This is especially harmful when younger fans are influenced by these ideas and feel insecure/like they NEED to have these branded clothes to be stylish, brands that are likely beyond their budget.
- It's all so hyper capitalistic: This is more targeted at the bigger, established idols who have control over their brand ambassadorships, but like… do they need this money??? Do these celebrities who are most certainly wealthy need to be taking brand after brand ambassadorship, thereby endorsing these capitalistic symbols to make more money than they really need? And I know you’re gonna say smth like “can’t blame them for wanting to make bank, most celebrities do this – it’s normal. And yes, why wouldn’t someone want to make money in this society – that’s how we live and that’s fair – but that doesn’t completely mean they can’t be scrutinized because again, they are endorsing these mega-corporations and profiting immensely off them. Maybe I’m dumb for expecting anything from the K-pop industry considering it’s hyper capitalistic, consumerist nature, but I still feel it’s important and necessary as fans we can remain critical about the things we consume and not just settle for what things are.
3. It's lost it's prestige: Now that every newly debuting idol and their grandmother has at least one brand ambassadorship, they all feel like cheap, unimpressive obligations the companies have tacked onto their rookie stars. It’s lost all of it’s prestige in my eyes, that now when I see rookies like ADP or Newjeans bagging these ambassadorships immediately just make me sigh, I just can’t take it seriously anymore. Granted, this is the least concerning thing I have considering I would rather we stop putting these truly tired luxury brands on a pedestal, but it just looks too goofy I’m sorry.
4. The fits almost always suck: And finally yes, the fits hardly ever eat. 9 times out of ten the red-carpet looks are boring and tacky, the photoshoots look mid because the idols can’t model. And perhaps it’s not the fault of these idols or even the companies (if we’re being generous), but it all just adds to the fact that nothing substantial or worthwhile is coming out of these brand ambassadorships, just the same old bland photoshoots and carpet looks to further generate promotion and profit for these already wealthy corporations.
Now, while it may not seem like it, I don’t absolutely detest the idea of idols and brand ambassadorships. I hate what it’s become over time, yes, but I understand that it was bound to happen in both a generous sense (K-pop’s inherent visual appeal and idols being style trendsetters) as well as a cynical sense (these companies are itching to make money regardless). So, I personally think, if these brand ambassadorships need to happen at all, I would be okay with them if they fulfilled one or two of these conditions:
1. The Idol’s brand ambassadorships actually produce interesting and thoughtful collaborations/creations.
2. The Idol genuinely likes and values the brand’s visual identity, suits the aesthetic and cares about the Fashion.
With the first one, I’m thinking about collaborations that actually realizes one of Fashion’s most valuable purposes, which is to CREATE. And I don’t mean in a purely mass-productive, capitalistic way (though that is not entirely removed from the equation), but creation which involves a designer, an artist, being inspired by their muse and producing something new. I think of Jennie’s partnership with Gentle monster, where her Jentle Salon eyewear line was so cute and so tastefully her, and showed care and thought into the collaboration from both the idol and the brand.
Similarly, I feel Jisoo’s partnership with Dior falls under this label, designer Maria Grazia Chiuri said she was inspired by Jisoo as a muse for her autumn/winter 2021 collection. Side note, Maria Chiuri also designed her 2026 Met Gala outfit. There is clearly a mutual respect between her and the house that is above other idols’ ambassadorships, and I appreciate that here the fashion is not forgotten as a mere means to an end (at least not so obviously).
Similarly, under my second point, I would much rather an Idol be a brand ambassadorship show an actual interest and care for the brand they are endorsing than someone who dgaf about the fashion at all beyond making a profit.
Again, I’m going to circle back to Jennie with her long-standing partnership/association with Chanel, dating back to 2017 before she became an official ambassador in 2019. Was anyone actually surprised when Jennie was announced a brand ambassador for Chanel? She was literally called “Human Chanel” because she loved donning the brand and made it look good. You could tell she loved and was proud to represent Chanel and she fit the aesthetic. Though there is a definite dip in quality in her outfits from her early Chanel days to now, as well as Chanel as a whole, I still appreciate how she clearly cares about fashion and that makes for, imo, a better partnership that the majority that come out nowadays.
And yes, these are still mega corporations with plenty of problematic ethics behind them. But again, I would much rather idols/companies endorsing these fashion houses actually (or at least pretend to) care about fashion. Because if they don’t care about fashion or the brand, then they are unquestionably only in it for the money, dgaf at all but will gladly profit off of these brands, and that imo is more harmful.
And don’t get me wrong, I know I’ve mentioned Jennie and Jisoo specifically, but that doesn’t mean I think they’re ambassadorships should be utterly absolved of the criticisms I’ve stated above – they are still projecting these capitalistic symbols, these brands are built off of problematic labour conditions for workers, and the money money money is absolutely a driving factor above all else.
However, I still believe how they’ve gone about their partnerships model what I envision an actually productive brand ambassadorship, should look like.
So Yeah, there is my long tangent, it is about 1200 words I’ve churned in under 30 minutes, oh how I wish I could do this so seamlessly for my uni assignments, but please tell me your thoughts!
I know some of my points are unrefined and these are just my raw thoughts, but I’m curious what other people think about the state of brand ambassadorships and Kpop.