[Eye] Helena and Kristie, experiment that keeps on going

Helena and Kristie was never really meant to become a brand. It was born as a onetime experiment, a distraction from the monotony of corporate design life.

“We were getting bored, and we were looking for something different to do. So we decided to prepare for Pret-a-Porter together. It was never intended to turn into a brand,” Helena and Kristie’s co-CEO and creative director Hong Hye-won told The Korea Herald at one of the shoe brand’s stores in southern Seoul.

Hong and co-CEO Ko In-hee first met as designers at Korean shoe brand Esquire. Hong was there for just three months, but that brief encounter brought them together long enough to partner up for the French ready-to-wear show in Paris in 2009.

“We needed to refresh. We designed the way we’d always wanted to, and were chosen for Pret-a-Porter. We didn’t think about securing orders because it was supposed to be just a fun experience,” said Ko, who said she never thought the project would replace her day job at Esquire.

“But then we got an order from (French department store) Galeries Lafayette, and when we came back to Korea it felt like a waste to stop there. So we launched our brand with a small shop on Garosugil.”

The Pret-a-Porter fashion show was a way for the two designers to find their identity, free from the constraints of working for an existing brand.

The result was a quirky shoe collection inspired by Cirque du Soleil. Describing itself as “glamour with a twist,” Helena and Kristie specializes in glitzing up classic shoes like sneakers with sparkling patches and splashes of color.

The name of the brand itself represents this concept. Hong and Ko each chose a name using their initials and reflected their designs. Hong chose feminine and artsy Helena; Ko chose the sophisticated Kristie.

Both CEOs are designers by training, but with Helena and Kristie they have split roles. Hong, who studied fashion in Italy and built her resume at brands like Dolce and Gabbana, Handsome and Lorita Petinari, is the creative director.

Ko, who began as a designer and built her career at Korean brand Esquire, took over business management with her expertise in the domestic market.

“We weren’t in an environment where we could express ourselves freely. We found our personality through the Pret-a-Porter show, and we’ve still kept some aspects of that circus concept,” said Ko.

The fresh concept caught the eye of the upscale Galleria Department Store, and the brand set up shop in the department store just six months after opening its shop on Garosugil.

Today, the brand is operating in nine major department stores with sales of about 5 billion won ($4.5 million) per year. Each season, the company presents 60 to 70 new products.

Starting in October, Helena and Kristie will be the first Korean shoe brand to show its wares at Barneys New York. The designers snagged a $1.24 million exclusive three-season deal with the luxury specialty retailer at Seoul Fashion Week.

“We had toned down the wild elements from our initial collection to fit the Korean market, but the Barneys buyer picked up the items that emphasized those fun details,” said Ko.

The contract with Barneys includes Helena and Kristie’s signature sneakers with design patches, as well as ballerina flats.

“We’re a company that‘s strong in details. If you look at the products that were ordered, they may seem like pretty common designs, but they have little details that stand out,” Hong said.

Using those details, such as the brand’s signature red lip patches, Helena and Kristie will expand beyond shoes into items such as socks, phone cases and T-shirts starting later this year, they said. The brand will also begin to venture into men’s shoes.

On the distribution front, the brand is open to pursuing more overseas deals, with Barneys New York as a starting point, but will stick to department store channels in Korea. Although Helena and Kristie’s products cultivate a funky and young style, the designers said that their price point did not fit outlets that target younger consumers such as specialty multibrand roadside shops.

“We have absolutely no plans to lower our price point. In fact, we may go the other direction. But we’ll keep our personality young,” Hong said. Luxury brands such as Miu Miu, Ko noted, were able to successfully target older consumers with buying power, who take a liking to its colorful designs.

The key is to keep evolving the brand with one eye trained on the market, Ko and Hong said, unapologetic about being able to flexibly change their designs to fit market demands.

“If you insist on your own ideas without any room to evolve, your brand will die as soon as market trends shift,” said Ko. “It’s about being able to incorporate market demands into your brand identity. That‘s what a brand should do.”

The ultimate goal is to grow Helena and Kristie into a lifestyle brand, the CEOs said.

“We started with the lip mark, but then we created eye-shaped patches and bird-shaped patches. We saw that consumers responded to that kind of design content, and we want to apply that to other types of items as well,” Hong said.

“There have been no Korean shoe brands that really made it abroad, because they’ve kept their focus narrow on the domestic market,” said Ko. “We want to create a brand concept that can be introduced internationally, one that we can proudly say was made in Korea.”

Just as the Barneys deal came serendipitously at Seoul Fashion Week, the designers say they will wait for new opportunities to come naturally rather than aggressively pursue sales abroad.

“We’re always open to entering new markets, whenever the opportunities come. If you’ve got a good brand, opportunities will come knocking,” said Hong. 

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)