IT WAS LEFT TO Founder, Chairperson and Chief Visionary Officer of the Sungjoo Group and Chairperson of MCM, Sung-Joo Kim – affectionately known as Mrs Kim – to remind us of the relevance of this year’s Condé Nast International Luxury Conference being based in Seoul.

A stalwart of the luxury community here, and throughout Asia, she knows better than anyone the secret to Korea’s success, and brought three of its greatest advocates as endorsement: the Korean hip-hop artist and founder of the AOMG record label, Jay Park; Managing Director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul, Jiyoon Lee; and Professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Sangmin Bae – each of whom commented on how K-Culture has permeated their respective fields.

Sung-Joo Kim

“The era of Asian Renaissance where Asian culture begins to influence global popular culture is becoming much more prominent and Korea is at the heart of it.  MCM is a living testament of Korea and Asian influence in the global market lead by millenials who are borderless and without boundaries.”

Jay Park

“When I was younger, everyone automatically assumed I was Chinese, and when I told them I was Korean they didn’t know where it was. People are very interested in Korea – it’s hot right now. I just had a tour and 85 per cent of the crowd weren’t Korean, but they knew every single word of my songs, all of which were sung in Korean. Last year I wore a T-shirt on TV and after it aired, it sold out straightaway. Clothes I wear – and other artists – can start trends in fashion or music.”

Sangmin Bae

“The Koreans have very strong passion – they love to share something good with their friends and that feeds into K-Pop. Korean designers are becoming more fashionable and we are creating our own way. Old-school luxury was built on exclusiveness and it’s not exclusive anymore because everyone has a luxury brand, so it’s becoming a last alternative. We now try to make the customers feel number one and we want to let the customer define the brand.”

Jiyoon Lee

“The city of Seoul itself is a really inspirational place. The Mayor of Seoul is trying to make it a better city, full of all the creative talents of people here. It’s about multidisciplinary creativity. It’s happening in Seoul and the rest of Korea and is a regeneration of creative energy and ideas. I think that the Millennial generation is defining Korea in a different way. They are really living in the market, and have crazy creativeness.”