Page 71 - Forbes - Asia (June 2018)

500 YEARS OF HANDBAGS

There’s a museum for everything, and since 2012 Seoul has boasted a museum
of handbags. Housed in a building shaped like a handbag, with two “straps” for
a “handle” on the roof, the Simone Handbag Museum features a gallery of 350
accessories. It’s the passion of Simone Accessory founder Kenny Park, whose re-
search into the history of bags and purses inspired him—he says almost obligated
him—to start the project. “Simone knows more about the design and history than
any other company,” he says. “It was important to maintain and preserve this
heritage.”
The exhibits range from a 16th-century Italian silk and metal purse to a 1970s
plastic handbag that resembles a vintage telephone and a $46,000 Hermès
Birkin. Rarities from Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Alexander McQueen and others fill the
showcases on one floor in a bright and airy space. Another floor displays acces-
sories worn by the likes of turn-of-the-last-century Argentine socialite María Luisa
Unzué de Aldao. Temporary exhibits with themes such as Bag Is Rhythm, Bag Is
Media and Bag Is Literature are mounted once or twice a year.
The museum draws fashion-design students, foreign tourists and locals, some
4,000 people a year. The admission fee is around $5. It’s in a ten-story building
called Bagstage on a tree-lined street of boutiques and cafes in Sinsa-dong, a
trendy part of Gangnam. Bagstage also hosts handbag-making classes led by
Simone’s leather craftsmen—Park calls them meisters, the German word for mas-
ters. New employees often attend to learn about the heart of the business.
This isn’t the only handbag museum in the world. It isn’t even the only one in
Asia—there’s another in Bali—and there are others in Amsterdam and the U.S. But
Park insists there is no comparison. “The handbag museum tells the history of the Accessorizing on a massive scale: Kenny Park’s
fashion cycle and the shifting experiences of women’s lives,” he says. —G.C. museum in Seoul is shaped like a handbag.

for luxury goods, with mainland sales named a er the day in 1984 when Park brands that are unique and are planning
totaling $23 billion last year, according and his college sweetheart ran into each [new] store concepts.”
to a Bain & Co. report. other in a cafe. hey had broken up six he Simone umbrella also includes
A er 38 years of making bags for years earlier and hadn’t seen each other Simone Investment Co., which says it
some of the world’s most popular since, but the café was a place they used manages nearly $1 billion in assets for
brands, Park is thinking of slowing to frequent. “Next May we got married,” Park and other investors—mostly prized
down. “I’ve been running like a truck he says. real estate such as the De Rotterdam, a
without brakes. Now I am trying to have Joowon, who did a stint at Morgan development of oices, apartments and
more balance and reassess the priorities Stanley with its consumer retail group in a hotel in the Netherlands; the Wash-
in my life. I am trying to have more time Manhattan, speaks with Forbes Asia over ington Harbour complex, which sits on
for myself and my family.” the phone from Paris. “My father really the Potomac River in the Georgetown
he seeds have already been sown. respects my autonomy,” she says. he section of Washington, D.C.; and the
he older of his two daughters, Joowon, brand is aimed at consumers who are Westin Hotel in Union Square, San
31, heads a subsidiary, Simone Fashion typically 30 to 50 years old, and it has Francisco.
Co., that opened in 2015 and runs four a simple and understated feel, with the For now Park has no plans to take his
luxury-accessory stores—two for Ger- handbags averaging around $700. company public, but he hints at a vague
SFL TRAVEL / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO called 0914 that sell mostly Simone’s business serving as the local retailer for this far. When we celebrated our 30th
man designer Karl Lagerfeld and two
possibility. “I never imagined getting
Simone Fashion also is building a
anniversary last year. I asked my busi-
niche labels from Europe and Japan.
own brand, 0914. he 0914 lagship is
across from Dosan Park in the Gangnam
ness partners, What was the best part of
“Our customers are really well-versed in
working with Simone? Almost everyone
designer labels and are the experimental
district of Seoul; on the next street are
Hermès and Cartier shops. he brand is
type,” she says. “We are working with
said predictability and consistency.” F
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