Korean discount stores team with designers

Large Korean discount stores are launching clothing lines in collaboration with designers to enhance their reputations with consumers.

Lotte Mart has announced it will sell shirts from designers Han Sang-hyuk and Go Tae-yong at 64 stores across the nation.

Han Sang-hyuk is one of the most prestigious mens’ apparel designers, and has worked as a creative director for ‘Von’ and ‘Mvio’. He currently runs his namesake brand.

Go Tae-Yong is the youngest designer to make a debut at the Seoul Collection, and is a past winner of the TV survival program ‘Fashion King’.

Han will launch the Lotte Mart Star Wars series, which is a more popular rearrangement of his Star Wars Collaboration series presented at the 2016 S/S Seoul Collection, pictured above.

Go used puppy motives, which he is fond of, in the apparel he designed for Lotte Mart.

A limited number of 15,000 T-shirts from the two designers will be sold.

Large discount stores are pushing for change with the threat of online distribution channels and business regulations looming large. As growth seems to be limited through traditional practices, Lotte Mart decided to collaborate with fashion designers to create a platform that could give them a competitive edge.

Company officials commented that the collaboration is meaningful, as it is an unusual alliance between the designers who lead the latest trends and a discount store. Through the project, Lotte Mart plans to build a more favorable public opinion of the clothing it carries.

* Original reporting by M H Lee of Korea Bizwire

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