- Australian-born K-Pop singer Felix Lee walked the Louis Vuitton runway in Paris on Monday night.
- Lee is a muse hand-picked by Nicolas Ghesquière, Louis Vuitton’s artistic director.
- Lee’s second turn on the catwalk comes as LVMH bets big on East Asia, buying into endorsements from K-Pop.
Wherever Felix Lee goes, the lights — and Louis Vuitton — seem to follow.
On Monday, the 24-year-old Australian-born K-Pop singer showed up at LV’s March Fall-Winter 2025 show in Paris for his second time on the catwalk.
He walked the runway wearing pieces designed by Nicolas Ghesquière, LV’s artistic director for womenswear.
The look: Loose gingham-print pants with a black and beige knit sweater paired with a teal duffel bag with orange straps. Lee’s hair — freshly bleached blonde — was straight and slicked back, reminiscent of his first visit on the LV catwalk in 2023.
Lee — who is based in South Korea and part of the eight-member band Stray Kids — is one of Ghesquière’s latest muses. And while it’s now common to see at least one South Korean pop star sitting front-row at fashion shows in New York, London, and Paris, it’s still rare for one of them to walk the runway for a major brand.
Before Monday’s show, Lee posted stories on Instagram with Ghesquière, where the designer said it was a “big honor” to have Lee at his show.
In several of the brand’s videos, Lee has spoken extensively about his friendship with Ghesquière.
In a March video from LV, Lee said he first met Ghesquière in 2023 in Seoul.
“It’s such a huge pleasure to meet him up front, and from there on, we became good friends,” he said in the video.
He said Ghesquière personally invited him to walk in the LV Fall-Winter 2024 show in Paris.
“The fact that I got to attend and do my first runway for Nicolas’ 10th-anniversary runway — honestly, it just blew my mind,” Lee said in a May interview with Vogue.
Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP
Lee’s Instagram page, which had 26.2 million followers as of press time, is full of pictures of him wearing LV pieces.
In a September post, he wore a black tee with the words “Vuitton Louis icons” emblazoned on it.
Another October post showed him carrying the brand’s Neverfull bag.
LV bets big on East Asia
Lee’s meteoric rise in LV’s hall of muses comes as LV bets big on Asian endorsements.
Lisa from the K-Pop girl group Blackpink, who was previously the face of Celine, joined LV as a brand ambassador in July.
And back in 2021, LV tapped BTS as house ambassadors.
The larger LVMH business, too, has added K-Pop idols to its roster of ambassadors.
In 2023, Dior and Tiffany & Co. made Jimin — one of the seven members of BTS — their brand ambassador. V, also from BTS, became the face of Celine and Cartier the same year.
In 2021, Tiffany & Co. signed Blackpink singer Rosé to be the face of the brand. Her bandmate, Jisoo, was chosen as Dior’s global ambassador in 2021.
To be sure, the connections between Korean pop culture and Western high fashion have been over a decade in the making.
G-Dragon — the leader of BIGBANG, the top band in South Korea’s pop scene in the 2000s — was one of Chanel’s hottest faces in Asia. The rapper was friends with the late Karl Lagerfeld and, in 2015, walked in Chanel’s haute couture show in Paris.
A broader East Asia marketing push from LV
Jacob Cooke, the CEO of the China-based marketing firm WPIC Marketing + Technologies, said that LV’s strategy of featuring K-Pop stars like Lee is a “continuation of its broader East Asia approach, where luxury brands use celebrity endorsements to cultivate deep emotional connections with consumers.”
“South Korea has long been a cultural powerhouse for luxury, driving trends across Asia and beyond, particularly through K-Pop and K-drama fandoms, so LV’s investment in stars like Felix Lee makes sense in terms of market positioning for the entire region,” Cooke said.
However, Cooke said celebrity endorsements may not always be effective for sustained brand growth, as the brand risks appearing “too mass market” and less “aspirational.”
Representatives for Lee at JYP Entertainment and Louis Vuitton did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
