PARIS — The latest stage of the Asian invasion of the Paris couture season occurred at the Chanel show, held at the Grand Palais on Tuesday morning.
While the creative director Karl Lagerfeld’s muses remained out in force (the model and actress Cara Delevingne with her puppy Leo and the actresses Diane Kruger and Clémence Poésy), the star attraction proved to be G-Dragon, a South Korean pop star-turned-rapper and aspiring fashion entrepreneur who set Twitter alight with his naval-captain-inspired Chanel couture suit, flawless foundation and gigantic black fur hat.
A former teenage sensation and leader of the K-Pop boyband Big Bang, G-Dragon (whose real name is Kwon Ji-yong) has been a front-row fixture at recent Chanel shows the world over, from Dallas to Paris. His chameleon style, kaleidoscopic hair shades and catchy songs have won him an army of fans in the millions in Asia, especially in his home country. (This no doubt explains part of his appeal for Chanel, who has identified South Korea as a leading luxury growth market.)
“Of course I wanted to come to the couture shows again, it is an amazing spectacle,” he said after the models had left the runway. “Since getting to know Karl, I have learned a huge amount from him and his work. I also like that he is a man whose image is incredibly distinctive — you hear his name and you can picture him immediately in your mind. I find that very inspiring.”
G-Dragon, who said he has made several investments in Asian fashion companies in recent months, emphasized that, while he had aspirations for the fashion world, they did not involve being a designer. “I would only create clothes myself if I felt I could do something really different — create a new style subculture for my generation and that is very ambitious,” he said. “What is more interesting to me is how all my worlds appear to be colliding at the moment — music, film, fashion and art — you can be one man, but be a force that combines all of those sectors together. There are business opportunities to be found within that.”
On previous visits to Paris, G-Dragon said, he had focused on shopping, but this time he planned to go to art galleries. “I now know that inspirations must come from everywhere,” he said, tilting his head toward Chanel’s artificial bright blue sky, part of the show set. “The sights you can find here in Paris are second to none.”
Source: NYT
WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY: CHANEL FASHION SCOOP
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Also at the show were Diane Kruger, Gwyneth Paltrow, Monica Bellucci, G-Dragon, Inès de la Fressange and Clémence Poésy.
Meanwhile, G-Dragon is branching out as a businessman. The Korean pop star and his Big Bang bandmate Taeyang have reportedly invested more than $2 million in two subsidiaries of their management company, YG Entertainment: YG Plus and Code Cosme International, also known as Moonshot Cosmetics.
So does he see himself becoming a designer? “If I’m going to be the designer, I just want to make a new culture, kind of like young generation,” he said in English, before going on to expound in Korean, relayed by a translator.
“In the past, I saw music and fashion and art as a little bit separate. Nowadays, you see a lot of musicians coming together with artists, or fashion coming together with artists. They’re all three coming together. So moving forward, I see that happening a lot more and for me personally, I really enjoy bringing those three together and experiencing new things this way,” he said.
Source: WWD
THE TELEGRAPH UK: MEET THE KOREAN POP STAR, G DRAGON, WHO CAUSED A STIR AT CHANEL
The front row at Chanel’s Haute Couture show today was filled with Karl’s usual favourites, including Diane Kruger, Cara Delevingne and Clémence Poésy. But there was one star getting tagged in even more tweets and Instagram posts than Cara Delevingne and her dog Leo – K Pop star G-Dragon.
You might not have heard of G-Dragon, but the South Korean rapper is arguably the biggest Asian artist in the world, with a fiercely loyal social following. His fan base could take on the Beliebers in a game of ‘first to go viral’ – and win. The 25-year-old, whose real name is Kwon Ji-yong, sent fans into a tagging frenzy today when he was pictured at Chanel’s Couture show in a navy suit covered in Chanel brooches, which he paired with a furry Chanel trapper hat.
His fan base is rapidly extending way beyond Asia; Kanye West is said to be a fan of his work and he has recorded a song with Justin Bieber. Karl Lagerfeld is one of his main supporters and will always give him a front row invitation to the Chanel show and, of course, a head-to-toe Chanel outfit to wear.
He isn’t new to the street style scene and has been sat front row at the likes of Saint Laurent and Lanvin for years, wearing anything from pink glitter Giuseppe Zanotti brogues to Chanel tweed women’s jackets. With 7.6 million followers on Instagram, the lead singer of the Korean band Big Bang is an incredibly powerful force in the industry and in usual Kate Middleton fashion, he causes pieces to sell out moments after he’s spotted wearing them. But he doesn’t just borrow looks from designers; it’s thought that he spends spend serious money expanding his fashion collection.
G-Dragon is becoming a real fashion week character, as BOF wrote last year: “When Karl Lagerfeld included G-Dragon in a group photo at the latest Chanel couture show alongside international A-listers like Kristen Stewart and Julianne Moore, it helped elevate the Korean rapper’s status as an ‘it boy’ even higher.”
G-Dragon said in an interview with Complex Magazine about his success in America: “Just to put it real simply, [American tastemakers] are taking notice because I’m doing well. If I didn’t do well, they wouldn’t even have noticed me or cared. So I don’t put too much meaning behind it.”
Source: The Telegraph
VOGUE: 6 TIMES G-DRAGON WAS THE BEST DRESSED MAN AT CHANEL
What is it about G-Dragon? Spotted in the front row at Chanel’s couture show today, the chameleonic K-pop star cut a dramatic figure against the bucolic backdrop in an enormous fur ushanka that even outdid a dog-carrying Cara Delevingne—and demonstrated once again his uncanny knack for larger-than-life style that remains wearably cool.
This morning’s ushanka was not G-Dragon’s only showstopping Chanel look: Ever since his first appearance at the Pre-Fall 2014 collection in Dallas, he has become a textbook example of how boring bouclé can be anything but. Take the Spring 2015 show, for instance, where the 27-year-old gabbed with model Soo Joo Park and Karl Lagerfeld in reflective blue pants and a burgundy tweed jacket, obscuring his mop of curls with a Birkin-esque suede hat—a playful update to classic French gamine codes. Next up, at Spring couture, he gave Chanel a street-punk edge by pairing ripped jeans with an outré logo belt, a white bouclé coat with a Lurex-lined train, and oversize shades, while Fall 2015 couture’s casino-themed outing called for something unexpected: A well-cut tux with no ornamentation, save for a Poison Ivy red pompadour. Is it any wonder that Karl keeps him around?
It’s a surprisingly measured approach that involves taking a polished base (pastel twinsets, classic black suits) and adding one over-the-top embellishment, whether that means an oversize fur hat or a shocking dye job—a K-pop-style reinvention that has us inspired to rethink the tweed, too. Here’s hoping Chanel’s love affair with G-Dragon is no passing fad: Just good fashion.
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