Dear Gossips,
There’s a big K-pop presence in Cannes this year. Chopard, one of the festival’s brand sponsors, hosted a star-studded party the other night at the Hotel Martinez, one of the major hotspots on the Croisette, and all four members of Aespa were there to represent:
Girl band @aespa_official becomes the first K-pop group to attend the Cannes Film Festival in their role as global ambassadors for Swiss jewelry brand Chopard #Cannes2023 pic.twitter.com/Aosgd39W1D
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 24, 2023
Three of the four members of BLACKPINK have also been in Cannes. Last week Rosé, an ambassador for Saint Laurent, walked the carpet at the Palais:
BLACKPINK’s Rosé at the Cannes Film Festival.
— Pop Base (@PopBase) May 17, 2023
pic.twitter.com/0oYO38O8fH
Jennie of course is there with HBO Max’s The Idol (and she’s with Chanel, we’ll talk more about Jennie later) and Lisa was at the private Celine party along with BTS’s V and Korean actor Park Bo-gum:
Park Bogum, BLACKPINK Lisa, and BTS Taehyung at the Celine Cannes 2023 Dinner. pic.twitter.com/V5VsLTNJYS
— Viral Takes (@viraltakes) May 23, 2023
None of this should be surprising. According to Morgan Stanley, “South Koreans are the world’s biggest spenders on luxury goods per capita” with a 24% growth in 2022. And China is expected to become the biggest market for luxury brands by 2025. Which is why several Chinese stars have also had a presence in Cannes, including young actress Zhang Jingyi was also flown in for the Celine event.
CELINE weibo:
— enjoy👸diagold (@diagold12) May 24, 2023
CELINE China Brand Ambassador wore CELINE23Winter Ladies Collection to attend the CELINE 2023 Cannes Dinner. Integrating exquisite tailoring into a modern silhouette, decorated with NEWSPAPER TRIOMPHE handbags, it expresses femininity and elegance.#ZhangJingYi pic.twitter.com/OpUW0AreqX
Jingyi is relatively new on the scene. She broke out late last year in a highly rated Chinese drama called Lighter and Princess, a show I mainlined back in January and it was worth the hype, she is delightful. And STUNNING.
It’s not just fashion though, as we have seen, more and more, Hollywood is looking East for content. Credit to Netflix because they were on this early in the mid-2010s, investing in South Korean productions and creatives – a strategy that is paying off huge for them with the success of Squid Game two years ago and Physical: 100 and The Glory this year.
Fresh off the success of The Glory, Netflix announced last month that it would be adding another $2.5 billion, double the amount since 2016, in Korean programming with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos saying that entertainment coming out of Korea is “representing the global cultural zeitgeist”. And the numbers back up that statement. The second part of The Glory (there are 16 episodes, part one came out in January) was globally the most-watched show on Netflix when it dropped in March.
The Glory stars Song Hye-kyo, one of the biggest names in Korea, just won the Baeksang Award for Best Actress (Korea’s highest acting honour) for her role. She herself is an ambassador for Fendi and was just at the Met Gala a few weeks ago as a guest of the brand. In The Glory she plays a school teacher who has spent years putting together a revenge plot to take down the bullies who tortured her when she was a teenager. It is dark AF but also deeply satisfying, even though we were all probably taught that revenge isn’t the answer and you’re not supposed to take pleasure in paining the people who pained you. But these are the stories that are resonating with millions of people around the world. And that audience is growing. If that audience doesn’t yet include you, you may be falling behind. The East is taking over in fashion and television and movies and music. It’s time for you to get caught up.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey