YG’s Fashionable Investment

Executives from both companies attended a press conference to announce the deal at a hotel in Singapore Sept. 13. YG’s chief producer, Yang Hyun-suk, told reporters that he believes the capital investment will allow his company to “let the world know Korea through music and fashion.”

Ravi Thakran, the president of L Capital Asia, a private equity fund in the LVMH Group, said that the “mutually beneficial relationship” will lead to new entertainment-related businesses. In a separate interview with Reuters, Yang said he will present three of his marquee acts, Big Bang, 2NE1 and Psy, at a showcase concert in Beijing next month, sponsored by Samsung Electronics.

He is also launching a joint venture with Samsung’s fashion unit, Cheil Industries, with LMVH’s blessing that will take advantage of his music stable’s distinct style, which is grounded more in hip-hop than pop.

Several of his charges have appeared at fashion shows in Paris and New York as models. In this way, YG has been the most successful of Korea’s major talent agencies to move beyond music “I’ve been in music for a while, but it’s been rather a late start in fashion,” Yang told Reuters.