Greeting

Welcome to everyone visiting the website of the Korea Culture & Trade Association.

K-pop and K-beauty went global first. Support systems from government and industry are now in place, and cosmetics have become Korea's second-largest export category. It is now time to connect the world's interest — opened up by our content and products — to people and to a stage. Training those people is what the Korea Culture & Trade Association sets out to do.

A fashion show is not just a place to see clothes. Clothing and shoes, hair and makeup, the models who wear and walk them, and the staging and music all come together in a single scene that shows a nation's aesthetic in fifteen minutes. Korea already has all of these ingredients. But unlike the European houses where a single company builds the entire stage, we can only build that stage by bringing together players scattered across different companies. In every country, that task has fallen to an association.

The Association is not a business operator. It is an organization that helps members achieve results abroad and trains and teaches the people who will take the world stage. The standard is not career history but a path to the global stage. Our open calls and public auditions are open to anyone, from university students to working creators.

I have spent more than forty years building stages as a scenographer and director. At the National Theater of Korea and the Seoul Performing Arts Company, I brought Korea's traditional aesthetics to the stage, and I created the World National Theatre Festival, opening a path for theaters abroad to travel to and from Seoul. Now, with that experience, I am preparing an association that helps our creators take the world stage.

Our first stage is "LEVANTIS Paris 2026," to be held in October 2026 during Paris Fashion Week at the Musée national des arts asiatiques – Guimet. Emerging models selected at the September public audition in Seoul will stand on that stage. Rather than end with a single season's event, we will build this into a standing organization that puts Korea's cultural talent on the world stage every season.

The Association is working toward establishment within 2026. We ask for the interest and participation of creators, companies, and institutions.

Biography of the Chair, Founding Preparatory Committee

• Director, National Theater of Korea (2006–2008) · Chairperson and Artistic Director General, Seoul Performing Arts Company (1998–2005) · President and CEO, Seongnam Cultural Foundation (2013–2014)
• Off-Broadway stage design, New York (1976–1983) · Artistic Director General, 3rd World Delphic Games (2009, Jeju) · Founder, World National Theatre Festival
• B.A. in English Literature, Ewha Womans University · M.A. in Theatre, University of Hawaii · Ph.D. in Theatre, Chung-Ang University
• Some 70 works in stage design, playwriting, and direction · Baeksang Arts Award · Dong-A Theater Award · Korea Musical Awards