“Looks effortless, but it’s actually a full-on look” ... Will Kang Yu-mi’s “Hyunbaekcore” takedown leave Moncler in the same predicament? Alarm bells ring

[Financial News] The so-called “Hyunbaekcore”—an affluent style characterized by relaxed shopping in achromatic shirts and knitwear instead of flashy logos—has become a new online talking point after being satirized by a comedian. A buzzword that once simply described a sophisticated fashion preference now appears to be expanding into a social debate highlighting class differences within department stores and the polarization of consumer spending.

According to the retail and fashion industries on the 30th, a new term, “Hyunbaekcore,” describing the way young, sophisticated affluent women dress, has recently spread like a trend, particularly on social media. It is a portmanteau combining “Hyunbaek,” an abbreviation of Hyundai Department Store, and “Normcore,” a style that favors a natural, comfortable look.
The style aims for the air of a wealthy woman who frequents department stores as if they were her own home and seems relaxed even when she has nothing in particular to buy. She wears neat, neutral-colored shirts, cotton trousers and knitwear made from luxurious materials in black, gray or beige, rather than pieces with conspicuous luxury-brand logos, adding a restrained accent with a single small accessory. Though it looks relaxed and as if little effort has gone into it, the style is actually a variation on the “old money look,” with the materials, silhouettes and colors of the clothes all carefully calculated. Actor Moon Ga-young’s off-duty outfits and the looks of composed upper-class characters in past dramas have often been cited as representative examples.

However, perspectives on the trend shifted after comedian Kang Yu-mi posted a video titled “Hyunbaekcore” on her YouTube channel that day.
The video sharply contrasted the crowded lower floors of a department store, packed with pop-up stores and food-and-beverage outlets, with the calm, sparsely populated luxury boutiques on the upper floors. It realistically depicted how the atmosphere and attitudes differ according to customers’ spending power and aspirations, even within the same department store, pointedly exposing the invisible economic class divide within this commercial space.
After the video was released, online communities saw a stream of reactions pointing to the bitter underside of consumer culture, including, “It feels like another form of status signaling disguised as naturalness,” and, “It pinpointed the structure that makes you feel deprived even when you’re in the same department store.”

Some in the industry are concerned that consumer-generated buzzwords, once they become targets of satire, could end up harming the sophisticated premium image brands have built.
In the case of Moncler, a high-end French puffer-jacket brand worn by comedian Lee Soo-ji while playing a Seoul Daechi-dong parent intensely focused on private education for their children, a strange phenomenon occurred immediately after the video’s release: amid reactions such as “I’m embarrassed to go out wearing it,” listings for women’s outerwear on the secondhand trading platform Bungaejangter surged to at least six times the previous week’s level.
The analysis is that if buying a particular brand is ridiculed as a “symbol of ostentation and snobbery” rather than “sophisticated taste,” it could backfire by making the brand’s core consumers reluctant to buy it.
Experts say the “Hyunbaekcore” phenomenon is a social trend that goes beyond fashion styling as a way to express individuality, reflecting an intertwining of the desire for recognition in Korean society and the psychology of class distinction through the consumption of spaces.
A retail industry official said, “For premium brands, their greatest asset is the sophisticated image the public admires,” adding, “Even when branding is driven by consumers themselves, becoming a target of satire or ridicule can undermine that appeal, so companies have no choice but to keep a close eye on the trend.”
[email protected] Moon Young-jin Reporter