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Hot on the heels of announcing Pharrell Williams as their new Men’s Creative Director, Louis Vuitton has tapped the talents of another giant in the music industry: Korean rapper and producer j-hope.
This week, the French maison confirmed that the former member of K-pop boyband BTS, the best-selling South Korean artists of all time, had become the latest name in the brand’s growing community of celebrity partnerships on an Instagram post earlier this week.
“The Maison is pleased to announce that the world-renowned rapper-singer-songwriter, and music producer will be joining as new House Ambassador,” it stated.
As a member of the global phenomenon that was BTS, j-hope was part of a music crew that broke numerous Billboard records and were listed in Times Magazine’s 100 most influential people of the year.
The 29-year-old has a surprising connection, if distant, to Australia too.
For those who may have forgotten, it was fans of BTS – the BTS Army – back in 2020 who raised over $20,000 in donations in 30 days during a devastating Australian bushfire season back in 2020.
The announcement of j-hope as ambassador is points to an important detail concerning the future of Louis Vuitton and its partnerships and focus for the future: the rapidly growing influence K-Pop stars have within the pop culture and music industry and the equally growing influence of South Korea as a luxury market mecca.
According a report in Bloomberg earlier this year, South Korea is now home to the world’s biggest luxury spenders.
