2000Archives Widens Its Audience and Pushes Upmarket

2000Archives, a womenswear brand run by Kyndof (CEO Kim Seon-bin), has recorded a threefold increase in sales year on year and is drawing attention in overseas markets including Japan and Europe. Abroad, it made its presence felt at Musinsa's Japan pop-up in April, and in December it will take part in a pop-up at the Hankyu department store in Osaka to carry that momentum forward. A collaboration with a well-known European brand is also lined up for the first half of next year, a measure of how strong interest is at home and abroad.

Response at pop-up stores has been strong as well, because the conceptual spaces that convey the brand's distinctive mood have consistently drawn attention. The pop-up at The Hyundai Seoul, which opened in April, took in more than 100 million won over seven days. Unusually, because 2000Archives has a strong fandom, weekday sales were far higher than weekend sales, when general consumers come out in greater numbers, and the purchase conversion rate was overwhelming.

On October 6, the brand opened a pop-up store on Hannam-daero in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, to mark the launch of its Souvenir collection. A DJ party was held alongside it, and on opening day members of HYBE's new girl group ILLIT visited, drawing large crowds. 2000Archives had previously supported ILLIT by producing costumes for them on the R U Next program.

The Souvenir collection is a sports line created to target domestic consumers, carrying jogger pants, hoods in a range of versions and sweatshirts that had not been seen from the brand until now. Having drawn attention with bold and sexy designs, the brand plans to concentrate on widening its consumer target and attracting customers through the new sports line and the Hannam-dong pop-up.

As the brand's volume and profile have grown, hiring has also been active. It has reinforced its operations management, business development, marketing and design teams, and to strengthen design it recruited a designer who had worked at global high-end brands including Bottega Veneta.

The recruited designer will begin working in earnest on the next regular season and on overseas collaborations, and the hire will be the starting point for major changes across design, materials and other areas at 2000Archives. Next year the brand plans to expand domestic distribution while actively targeting Europe, Japan and further Southeast Asian markets such as Thailand.

Director Hong said, 'Overseas and domestic brand collaborations are set for the first half of next year. We are preparing them with great care, and we hope many people, and people all over the world, will watch this collaboration,' adding, 'In 2024 we will join forces in earnest with the new designer to raise the completeness of the clothes and focus on the collection itself.'