Hyundai Department Store Group set to grow TIME as global luxury brand

[Photo provided by Hyundai Department Store Group]

Handsome Corp., a fashion company under Hyundai Department Store Group in South Korea, is set to transform its women’s clothing brand TIME into a global luxury brand as it celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

Hyundai Department Store Group Chairman Chung Ji-sun expressed his ambition to cultivate TIME not only as a leading player in the Korean fashion scene but also as a representative global luxury brand. The acquisition of Handsome by Hyundai Department Store Group in 2012, just a decade ago, laid the foundation for this vision.

Given the soaring popularity of K-culture and the elevated status of K-fashion, Chung’s bold investments have attracted attention within and outside the fashion industry, with industry experts eager to observe the impact.

According to Hyundai Department Store Group on Wednesday, Handsome will launch a new line called THE TIME targeting the global market, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of TIME’s establishment. Handsome held its first fashion show at the Seoul Wave Art Center on Thursday, marking the first time that the brand has organized its own fashion show since its inception in 1987. It is also quite unusual for a corporate fashion brand, rather than a designer brand, to host an independent fashion show.

In preparation for the event, Handsome has crafted over 100 products for the fall/winter season, reinterpreting TIME’s signature items such as tailoring jackets and showcased about 50 of them during the show.

“THE TIME is a new line planned specifically for the global fashion market since 2020. Starting with the formation of a task force team three years ago, we conducted extensive market research and product planning, leading to the launch of THE TIME Design Studio last year,” a company official said.

Starting from next year, Handsome will participate in the Paris Fashion Week with the goal of raising the current TIME revenue of 370 billion won ($284 million) to the 500 billion won range within the next five years.

Chung’s core management philosophy serves as the driving force behind the significant investments made to elevate the brand. Chung emphasized the “discovery of optimal value through reframing” in his New Year’s message. Reframing refers to reorganizing business operations with a fresh perspective and approach, detaching from conventional frameworks to adapt to evolving business environments.

Chung believes that the competitive advantage in the fashion industry lies in manpower. Therefore, upon acquiring Handsome, significant efforts were made to expand the company’s talent pool. The number of Handsome employees, which was a mere 540 in 2012, tripled to 1,509 as of March this year. A dedicated research and development (R&D) team for the TIME brand has expanded to over 100 members, making it the largest of its kind in Korea for a single brand.

However, the company has limited new store openings to only one or two each year. Instead, it transformed existing stores into luxurious spaces befitting a premium brand. Thanks to these efforts, Handsome achieved its best performance despite the downturn in the fashion industry caused by the pandemic.

Sales increased by 11.2 percent compared to the previous year, reaching 1.54 trillion won ($1.18 billion), while operating profit grew by 10.6 percent to 168.3 billion won. TIME alone also achieved record sales last year.