Inside Celine’s 591% profit surge: How BTS’s V transformed the French fashion house into Asia’s fastest-growing luxury label

When Celine appointed BTS’s V (Kim Taehyung) as its global brand ambassador in March 2023, few anticipated just how much the collaboration would redefine luxury marketing. Within twelve months, the French fashion house recorded one of the sharpest profit accelerations in Asia’s premium retail sector. According to company filings, Celine Korea’s operating profit surged 591 percent, rising from roughly ₩2.5 billion to ₩17 billion, with revenue climbing to more than ₩307 billion by year-end 2024.

That performance outpaced global peers such as Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Chanel, and Rolex, many of which reported stagnant or contracting results in the same period. Market observers widely attribute the leap to V’s ambassadorial influence — an alignment that turned his artistry, image, and fandom into measurable financial impact.

How did Kim Taehyung’s ambassador role change Celine’s growth trajectory in Asia?

Celine’s partnership with V began in March 2023, giving the brand nearly a full fiscal year to measure performance impact. The 2024 financial results reflect this first complete cycle of collaboration, cementing his role as one of the most commercially influential brand ambassadors in modern luxury.

Celine’s timing was strategic. In early 2023, the global luxury market was cooling after the post-pandemic boom. Consumer enthusiasm in China and Japan remained high, but discretionary spending in Korea had tightened. Rather than rely on conventional advertising, Celine focused on a youth-centric digital push built around V’s personality and global reach.

That pivot paid off almost instantly. Fan engagement translated directly into sales momentum. Boutique traffic in Seoul rose sharply, while the brand’s social engagement metrics multiplied across platforms. Within the first ten months of partnership, V’s appearances and digital content generated an estimated US $274 million in earned media value (EMV) — more than Celine’s entire previous year of digital publicity.

The synergy was more than visual. Creative director Hedi Slimane’s modern tailoring, cinematic campaigns, and minimalist photography echoed V’s personal aesthetic, allowing Celine to merge celebrity influence with artistic consistency. This authenticity made the campaign feel natural, not manufactured, strengthening credibility among both fans and fashion insiders.

Why is the Korean luxury market so critical to Celine’s global strategy?

Korea serves as a bellwether for global luxury consumption. Brand perception can rise or fall within months based on cultural trends, influencer activity, and online sentiment. When V joined Celine, the label’s desirability ranking in Korea climbed rapidly, surpassing legacy competitors that had dominated for decades.

Online search volumes for Celine in Korea reportedly rose more than 300 percent between April 2023 and March 2024. Resale demand for its Triomphe handbags and tailored leather jackets surged, often selling out within hours of social-media exposure. The company also shifted from distributor operations to direct subsidiary control, enabling localized pricing and targeted marketing that maximized the “V effect.”

This hybrid approach — global heritage with local agility — made Celine both aspirational and accessible. The Korean subsidiary became a template for expansion across Southeast Asia and Japan, where younger luxury consumers are reshaping spending hierarchies.

How did V’s presence at Paris Fashion Week 2025 translate into record media value?

By the time Paris Fashion Week arrived in 2025, V was already synonymous with Celine’s brand identity. His attendance at the runway event generated $13.1 million in earned media value, ranking him as the most influential musician in that fashion season. The number dwarfed similar past activations from former Celine ambassador BLACKPINK’s Lisa and current Dior ambassador Jisoo, underscoring how V’s engagement levels surpassed even prior benchmarks in K-pop fashion influence.

Analysts described this as the culmination of compounding media equity. Every prior campaign had primed global audiences for this moment, transforming V’s appearance into a cultural event rather than a typical celebrity sighting. His global fanbase — one of the most organized in digital fandom — amplified each image, interview, and short video, extending visibility far beyond the event itself.

This sustained engagement pattern has been dubbed the “fandom multiplier effect.” Unlike traditional campaigns that peak and fade, V’s influence creates weeks of organic reach, maintaining brand momentum across multiple markets and reinforcing Celine’s leadership in social visibility.

How does Celine’s performance compare with other LVMH luxury houses?

Within the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE (EPA: MC) portfolio, Celine’s Asian performance stood out as a profit outlier. While the group’s fashion-and-leather-goods division recorded steady global growth through 2024, Celine’s double-digit expansion in Korea and Southeast Asia far exceeded expectations.

By contrast, Dior’s Korean unit posted a moderate year, and Chanel continued to restrain supply to preserve exclusivity, which capped sales volume. Louis Vuitton, meanwhile, experienced only low single-digit growth in Korea, a stark comparison to Celine’s near six-fold surge.

Institutional analysts following LVMH subsidiaries believe Celine’s results could lift group margins in the medium term. Some even suggest that the “Celine playbook” — blending high-art direction with youth-powered fandom — could redefine how legacy luxury houses approach Asia in the next decade.

What risks could challenge the sustainability of Celine’s rapid growth?

Despite record numbers, experts caution that earned media value measures attention, not necessarily conversion. There is always the risk of ambassador saturation, where consumers tire of repetitive celebrity campaigns. Fandom-generated statistics can also overstate reach if the same content circulates among overlapping audiences.

Celine’s long-term challenge will be maintaining exclusivity while embracing virality. If overexposure blurs its high-fashion prestige, the brand could risk diluting its luxury positioning. However, early indicators remain positive. Resale prices for Celine’s accessories continue to climb, signaling genuine aspirational demand rather than speculative hype. Store traffic in Seoul and Tokyo remains strong, suggesting the brand’s growth is not merely social-media deep.

What does Kim Taehyung’s influence reveal about the new economics of luxury branding?

V’s partnership illustrates how fandom has become infrastructure in the luxury industry. Where fashion once depended on elite publications and closed-door shows, influence now flows through digital communities that function as global media networks.

Celine embraced this shift instead of resisting it. Its marketing cadence mirrors K-pop’s digital rhythm: teasers, drops, and behind-the-scenes visuals that sustain continuous buzz. Slimane’s minimalist visual language, paired with V’s charisma, creates cohesive storytelling that resonates across both editorial and social channels.

In this new paradigm, emotional connectivity and cultural relevance outweigh traditional advertising spend. Luxury is no longer defined solely by craftsmanship but by its ability to participate authentically in culture — a space where BTS’s V has unmatched reach.

Can Celine’s “V effect” be replicated by other fashion houses?

Opinions among industry strategists are mixed. Some argue that the phenomenon is unique to V and BTS, whose global fandom has no parallel in size or loyalty. Others believe Celine has built a replicable model: pairing one culturally fluent celebrity with strong creative coherence and measurable engagement benchmarks.

Rival houses are already experimenting. Dior, Gucci, and Prada have expanded their partnerships with K-pop idols, while smaller labels are using micro-influencers to emulate similar engagement curves. Yet few have matched the organic authenticity of the Celine–V alignment, where fan enthusiasm complements rather than overshadows brand identity.

If LVMH maintains Celine’s growth momentum through 2026, analysts expect internal benchmarking that could shift corporate investment toward similar Asia-focused ambassador strategies.

What does the Celine–V partnership signal about the future of luxury marketing?

Celine’s transformation under Kim Taehyung demonstrates that influence can be quantified, monetized, and institutionalized. Luxury marketing is moving from symbolic endorsements to enterprise-level performance indicators that track EMV, conversion lift, and brand equity impact.

The collaboration also confirms that cultural capital now equals financial capital. Celine’s Korean turnaround is not an anomaly — it’s a blueprint. Other luxury brands are studying how emotional storytelling, digital intimacy, and fandom loyalty can yield measurable business results.

For V, this partnership cements his evolution from global pop icon to strategic brand architect. For Celine, it affirms that the most effective runway is no longer Paris, Milan, or New York — it’s the social feed, powered by cultural resonance and authentic human connection.