ITSBAG's stylish Korean designer bags for everyday office wear | Sift & PickMore From Forbes South Korea's Richest 2018: A New Billionaire and Luxury Bag Provider to Stars This story appears in the June 2018 issue of Forbes Asia. Kenny Simone Bagmaker is a new participant in the rich list this year, which comes in number 36.... [+] (Photo: Jae-Hyun Kim forbes) This story is part of Korea's richest 2018 Forbes coverage. See the complete list. This story is part of Korea's richest 2018 Forbes coverage. See the complete list here. After a month in a factory in Seoul hot and crowded, it seemed like a riot. But Kenny Park was crushed as his release to two fashion executives wasn't going anywhere. I had just started a company doing bags and had flown to New York for the meeting. "They wouldn't look me in the eye," he says. "They said, Kenny, I'm sorry, but we talked to sales and marketing. Your opinion is that customers who buy Donna Karan are not interested in 30% discount, if it is made in Korea.' "The executives had been intrigued by the idea of producing Donna Karan bags at a much lower cost. "They were so impressed" by their samples, Park says. But it was 1987, luxury bags were produced mainly in Europe, and for many consumers the "Made in Korea" referred to a connotation: cheap labor meant cheap quality. Without deterrence, he called two days later. "I told you I don't have an M.B.A., I don't have any business experience, but I know the three essences of merchandising: well designed, well done, well paid. It doesn't have to be me, but you need to get ready. You need a base in Asia. "I proposed a deal. "A couple of hundred pieces, just one test. If it doesn't work, you're not going to be burned and my company is not going to bankrupt. Fortunately it worked... it really worked." The first order for 240 Donna Karan bags sold. A second order of 600 was exhausted; 3,000 bags were left. Within nine months Donna Karan had deployed a designer in Seoul to help launch and create a new Park bag to do. In his first full year, his contract manufacturer, Simone Accessory, earned $4 million in revenue and was already in black, thanks also to another American client, Esprit, who had signed a few months earlier. Hall of fameKenny Park makes bags for many famous brands, including Donna Karan. (Photo: Jim... [+] Spellman/FilmMagic) About 30 years later, Park, also known as Park Eun-Kwan, continues to make bags and other accessories for Donna Karan, whom he calls a close friend. But today it also has nearly 20 other customers, and the list reads as a fame fashion show: Michael Kors, Kate Spade, Coach, Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, Versus Versace, AllSaints. You may have bought or possessed something you've done, because every year it draws 30 million bags and small leather items. That keeps 30,000 workers occupied in seven factories in Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and China. Starting with the first handbag design for Esprit, the company now has a 180.000 design file. Simone, called by his wife's nickname, has 14 miles south of Seoul, where 400 employees work on a suburban office campus. The private company generated $120 million in net revenue and $940 million in revenue last year. This number of gains is 16.2 per cent higher than four years ago, while income is 45.5 per cent. In 2015 the , the largest private capital company in the world, bought a bet of 30% for $300 million. The value of the company has increased since then, and Park, 63, which now has 62% with its immediate family, breaks in the rows of billionaires this year while also debuts on the list of 50 richest people in South Korea. Forbes Asia estimates its net value at $1.16 billion. But for Park this capstone with his career probably doesn't compare to a title he won not long after he started. In 1988 -- just ten years after China began to open -- no Asian factory was still producing luxury brand bags. "That was the first step for Asia in the manufacture of designer bags," says Donna Karan. "That's why the Chinese manufacturers called me Da ge, older brother. Even when I was only 30, men 50 to 60 years old called me Da ge. Simone will always be known as a pioneer. "More about Forbes: Park sits on a large wooden desk in the middle of an office with book towers, a variety of sample bags and dozens of contemporary art works. "That's my root," he says when asked about one of the various fish decorations that adorn the crowded walls. It is a wink to the fishing company of his late father, who once had nine ships and an installation to repair and build ships. Park thought he would join the family business after graduating from Yonsei University in Seoul with German and Literature degrees in 1978. His two older brothers -- he is the fifth oldest of six brothers -- they were already working with his father, and he remembers to accompany him on the ships for six weeks. But a love for the sea led to a desire to travel, and Park decided to draw his own path: "I said, Dad, give me three years. Without the safety of your greenhouse I would like to go out and learn on my own. I wanted to see outside Korea." But he faced a barrier: South Korea was under military rule, and it was difficult for citizens to get passports unless they were on business. So Park decided that a job in an exporting company could pave its way abroad. He landed in a modest handbag manufacturer named Chungsan, where he was the first employee with a university degree. "I could have gone to a chaebol company, but I chose a small business," he says. Professional progression In 1980 his election paid. He was sent to Florence, Italy, to align a leather supplier and was surprised by the trendy sense of the locals. "I visited a men's clothing store, and I was surprised. The gentlemen of the streets wore yellow pants, green pants, fucsia trousers, red pants. There were 15 different colored shirts. I couldn't imagine men using those colors. That excites me a lot. He really motivated me. "That caused his creativity. "My canvas was small, but I could draw the drawing I liked, I could paint the painting I wanted. I could see a lady in New York using the bag I made. It was a little thing, but it was a good feeling. It felt like an achievement. "Park stayed with Chungsan for seven years, eventually becoming his head of development and sales, increasing revenues for more than ten times during his term, he says. But in 1987 he ventured on his own and asked his father $30,000, challenging the advice of friends and family. They warned that South Korea was beginning to lose its manufacturing prowess while production was moving to less expensive countries. "They said, Kenny, that's done. Why do you want to catch the last train? China is coming. "An agreement with Esprit led Park to launch its own company. (Photo: Alexander Pohl/NurPhoto via... [+] Getty Images But he had a safety net: a large client was virtually guaranteed. Esprit, based in San Francisco, now listed in Hong Kong, had approached Chungsan looking for a supplier, but a conflict of interest with an existing client frustrated the agreement. Esprit offered the contract to Park, motivating to launch his own company. Time was on his side. The labour force in the factories of Italy and much of Europe is getting older while fewer young people are interested in becoming artisans. The business was there, but the ability to handle it wasn't. So Park focused on client's signature number two. "I asked my American friends, "Who's the hottest right now?" Donna said. Donna Karan, it's American, it shows New York." He bought his bags and worked to produce the perfect sample before landing his meeting in the fall of 1987. Four years later he established his first offshore factory in Guangzhou, and a second five years later in Jakarta. His first European client signed in 1999. The company has flourished as Millennials' appetite for design products continues to grow. In 2017 the luxury leather goods market among the top five companies amounted to $49,2 billion, 30% in five years, according to data collected by Euromonitor International. Simone supplies two of those five players: Michael Kors and Coach. Now the market has reached the full circle: where once China was purely a manufacturing base, today is the largest market in the world for luxury products, with continental sales totaling $23 billion last year, according to one. More about Forbes: SlimmingAfter 38 years of making bags for some of the most popular brands in the world, Park is thinking about stopping. "I've been running like a brake-free truck. Now I'm trying to have more balance and reevaluate priorities in my life. I'm trying to have more time for myself and my family. "The seeds have already been sown. The oldest of his two daughters, Joowon, 31, heads a subsidiary, Simone Fashion Co., who opened in 2015 and runs four luxury-accessory stores -- two for the German designer Karl Lagerfeld and two calls 0914 that sell mostly Simone's own brand, 0914. The flagship 0914 is opposite the Dosan Park in the Gangnam district of Seoul; on the next street are Hermès and Cartier. The brand is called after the day in 1984 when Park and his college girlfriend found themselves in a cafe. They had broken six years before and hadn't seen each other since, but the coffee was a place they used to frequent. "Next May we get married," he says. Joowon, who made a stature at Morgan Stanley with his consumer group in Manhattan, talks to Forbes Asia on the phone from Paris. "My father really respects my autonomy," he says. The brand is aimed at consumers who usually have between 30 and 50 years, and has a simple and underestimated feeling, with the bags that average about $700. Simone Fashion is also building a business that serves as the local retailer for niche labels in Europe and Japan. "Our customers are very well invested in design labels and are experimental," he says. "We are working with unique brands and we are planning [new] store concepts." Simone's umbrella also includes Simone Investment Co., which says it manages nearly $1 billion in assets for Park and other investors - most of the real estate properties appreciated like De Rotterdam, a development of offices, apartments and a hotel in the Netherlands; the Washington port complex, which is located on the Potomac River in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C.; and the Westin Hotel in Union Square, San Francisco. For now Park has no plans to take his public company, but insinuates a vague possibility. "I never imagined getting that far. When we celebrate our 30th anniversary last year. I asked my business partners, what was the best part of working with Simone? Almost all said predictability and consistency." Based in New York, I cover wealth for Forbes Asia and I'm supervising some of our 12 country-rich list projects. As an editor of our philanthropy list, I'm interested in knowingBased in New York, I'm covering the wealth for Forbes Asia and supervising some of our 12 list projects from rich countries. As an editor of our philanthropy list, I'm interested in knowing how Asian business leaders spend their money on altruistic causes. Since I joined Forbes in 2014, I have worked from New York and Singapore and have focused mainly on our wealth coverage; An invaluable part of my experience came from helping produce our flagship lists: The billionaires of the world, the Forbes 400 and the richest women in the United States. When I'm not editing, I write about entrepreneurs throughout the region. E-mail tips and history ideas to Grace.chung@forbes.com; fluent in Korean.
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