Maison&Objet (2)
For Seung-hyun, it was an offer with no downside.
There was only one thing he wasn’t sure about: whether they could actually produce something that matched Yu Se-rin’s concept.
Seung-hyun, who had come up through an arts middle school, an arts high school, and then an arts university, understood that well.
A concept was only a concept, and creation was something else entirely.
If a concept showed the path, then every detail that dressed that path still had to be brought into being by the creator.
“You mean you want us to make this together?”
“Yes. If we can bring out Haesol Textile’s strengths as much as possible and combine them with a European sensibility, material, and tone, then we could end up with a product that can even target overseas markets. Roche Bobois is already rolling out luxury lines not only in Korea, but also in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe, and other markets.”
It was regrettable that Aureum was underperforming, but there was no question that this new project could become another opening for Haesol Textile.
“Understood. We’ll discuss it internally and get back to you.”
Yu Se-rin, catching the faintly dark look on his face, asked, “Why? Are you not confident?”
“It’s not that I’m not confident, exactly...”
As Seung-hyun failed to go on, she stepped in first.
“You might be worried whether it’s right for us to propose something before artistic inspiration has really struck. But President Jung Seung-hyun, you’re not an individual artist. That means you have to run after revenue.”
Her words were completely right, but Seung-hyun wasn’t troubled for the reason she assumed.
Still, there was no reason to say that out loud, so he simply agreed.
“All right. I’ll consider it positively.”
Yu Se-rin smiled brightly and held out her hand.
“If possible, could you send us at least a draft as soon as you can? I’m planning to show it to the regional store directors. If they approve it there, then... I think it’ll shake up the domestic high-end furniture market in a big way.”
Seung-hyun nodded and shook her hand with both of his.
He had finally gained the chance to go after the global market through the LVMH investment, but the fact that Haesol was not getting the expected response at home had been nagging at him.
And yet, after receiving this new proposal, his chest stirred with excitement.
If I could create an Eastern pattern, then I should be able to create a European, old-world pattern too. I can’t just keep forcing everything into an Eastern mold. If the company is going to grow, it has to accept change...
Taking the sketched concepts Yu Se-rin handed over, Seung-hyun answered with resolve. “Then I’ll be in touch.”
She had come and gone all of a sudden, leaving behind a good fragrance and a concept sketch that made his heart race just to look at it.
Back on the sofa, Seung-hyun picked up the draft she had left and studied it carefully again.
“Haa... this won’t be easy...”
Eastern patterns were something he had been exposed to throughout more than twenty years of life.
Even though he had attended an arts high school and studied fashion design there, and had therefore been exposed to Western culture as well, the depth of it still couldn’t compare to what he knew of Eastern aesthetics.
That was why, after he had handled the European royal feel of Roche Bobois furniture and learned the way fabric was made, he had chosen an Eastern design for his first art fabric.
That was simply what felt most natural, and what he was most confident in.
A little later, Department Head Hwang Seok-jae came in carrying a sign-off tray.
“Do you have a moment?”
“Of course. Have a seat.”
Hwang glanced at the concept sketch in Seung-hyun’s hands with his dim eyes, then asked, “Is that what the luxury furniture MD from Roche Bobois left behind after his visit?”
“Yes. She said we should do this together and left the sketch. She seemed to be full of expectations, but the problem is that I just can’t seem to get inspired.”
“You mean you’re not under any particular time pressure?”
Seung-hyun tilted his head and answered at once. “Not really.”
“Then take your time and think it through. Art doesn’t exactly produce anything without some kind of inspiration, does it?”
“That’s true, but... our supply for Daeryung Trading is about to run out, so I’m getting a little impatient.”
“There’s no need to hurry. Hanil Global is already complaining nonstop about wanting more Aero Coolbreeze fabric anyway, so if we have spare machines, we can just shift them over there. And looking at this... you made quilts, didn’t you?”
When Seung-hyun looked at the documents on the sign-off tray Hwang was holding out, he saw that the types and prices of the fabrics Haesol Textile had sold so far were densely listed there.
A quilt entry had been circled in red.
“That’s right. We had some Tencel fabric left in inventory, so we rushed to stuff it with batting and sold the whole thing online at only a small markup over the fabric cost.”
“You handled inventory cleanup very well.”
“So why do you ask?”
“Nothing much, just... it looks like the filling machine we brought in for quilt production is sitting idle. I was wondering what to do with it.”
“Ah...”
Come to think of it, he had expected they would keep producing quilts after that. But once he developed the art fabric and began collaborating with Hanil Global to produce Aero Coolbreeze fabric, he had pushed quilts out of his mind entirely.
Now Hwang must have noticed it sitting alone in a corner and brought it up out of curiosity.
“It looks like we bought it secondhand. Should we put it back on the used market too?”
“...”
Seung-hyun, who had been about to say to sell it, closed his mouth again.
Putting the idle line to work on Aero Coolbreeze would increase sales, but in the end that would only mean supplying an outside company with finished goods.
The reason LVMH had invested in Haesol Textile was that they had recognized Haesol’s own technology and sensibility.
If they spent the investment money expanding the factory and then kept acting like a subcontractor, delivering only to a prime contractor, would LVMH really think the investment had been well made?
Seung-hyun didn’t think so, not at all.
This was a path not only for LVMH’s sake, but one that didn’t even match his own goals.
Then it would be better to join forces with Yu Se-rin to create a new brand, or to launch something wholly original for Haesol Textile.
And that brought him back to quilts.
If art fabric could go overseas, then there was no reason quilts couldn’t go too.
Korea imported all kinds of bedding from abroad as well.
If GyeolBit fabric were applied to bedding too, that alone would become a brand.
“Should we just leave it for now?”
“Please wait a moment.”
Seung-hyun immediately placed a call right there.
After a few rings, an English voice came through the receiver.
The man who answered was Gabriel Moreau, the East Asia public relations chief for the LVMH Group.
“I wanted to ask you one thing. After the investment, you said you’d open the way for Haesol Textile to participate as an official partner at major luxury fairs and art events held in major cities around the world, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Do you happen to know of any exhibitions, luxury fairs, or art events in Europe related to bedding?”
“Bedding? Hmm... interesting. Of course there are. The upcoming Maison&Objet in Paris is the world’s largest trade fair specialized in interior design and home furnishings. If you want, I can arrange for Haesol Textile to participate. But if we’re going to apply on our side too, we’ll need something convincing to go on.”
Maybe...
Seung-hyun found himself hoping that if they participated there, it might fill in the European sensibility he felt was lacking.
“What if I can show you a sample first?”
“Then there’s no problem with arranging the application. Preparing a wider range of samples and pamphlets by the time of the event would be the bare minimum, of course.”
“All right. Thank you.”
After ending the call, Seung-hyun said, “Yes, let’s leave that for now. No, not just leave it... Have we still not found a suitable site for the second factory?”
He had asked about it before, growing frustrated at the lack of a decent property, but this time Hwang Seok-jae brightened unexpectedly.
“Actually, I was about to report on that as well. We found a suitable property in the Sindorim area. Looking at the map, the roads are well laid out, and Dorimcheon Station on Line 2 is only a five-minute walk away, so transportation is excellent. I was planning to go there with the factory manager.”
“Then isn’t the price high?”
“Because it came up for public auction, and because it already failed to sell once, the price isn’t much of a burden. It’s practically the perfect fit for us.”
“Lucky break.”
“Indeed.”
“Then go take a look, and if there’s nothing wrong with the property, please move quickly. It looks like we’re going to have a lot more work on our hands.”
“Understood.”
Seung-hyun ended the conversation with Hwang and immediately went out to find the factory manager.
“Manager, do you think we could make a sample quilt?”
“A quilt?”
“Yes, high-end. According to the records left on my father’s computer, you made a blended fabric five years ago with 60 percent Supima Cotton and 40 percent Tencel. Do you remember?”
Supima Cotton was one of the most luxurious cottons in the world, the trademark name for top-grade American Pima Cotton.
It is managed by the Supima Association in the United States, and because less than 1 percent of global cotton production can use that name, the yarn price is far higher than ordinary cotton.
“Ah, yes. I remember. At the time, Taesung Apparel was trying to launch a luxury clothing brand and requested women’s wear from us, but the project fell through, and they took quite a loss.”
“We’ll weave it at over 400 thread count... and this time we need proper quilting, so I’ll bring in a machine. For the filling, use a mix of goose down and microfiber. Finish the final stitching by hand so it comes out clean. Understood?”
“Over 400 thread count... then you’re making it properly. Understood. Since it’ll take time to secure the Supima Cotton and goose-down filling, we can start once the quilting machine arrives. But are you thinking of using some kind of art-fabric pattern then? Art fabric and quilt embroidery will feel quite different...”
“Let’s try it first. Don’t worry about the pattern; I’ll design it myself.”
Seung-hyun wasn’t especially worried about the pattern.
He had made art fabric countless times, drawn out fabric in innumerable patterns, and through the product-marketability results he had checked each time, he understood perfectly well which patterns would land.
Of course, since C-grade yarn alone had the blurring effect and embroidery had a clearly defined shape, the feeling would inevitably be different. But in some cases, a pattern actually had better marketability when the image was crisp and unmistakable.
He was confident because he understood that.
“Understood.”
Just as he was giving the factory manager those instructions and about to leave, Yoon Young-mi, who had somehow been standing nearby, hovered awkwardly and kept glancing his way.
Inside the light factory jumper she was wearing was a T-shirt made from Dual-Tex.
“What is it? You have something to say?”
“Um, President...”
“Yes?”
“That sample fabric you gave us before...”
“Yes, yes.”
“I gave some to our factory manager, and a few other people too... but the rest of them keep asking me to make more.”
“Oh, really?”
“But there wasn’t that much of that fabric back then... could you maybe weave a few more yards?”
Seung-hyun immediately turned to the factory manager.
“Do we have some yarn left?”
After Dongil Sangsa had once given them a headache over yarn, Haesol Textile had started receiving yarn mostly from companies that supplied Hanil Global’s fabric vendors.
So they had begun bringing in not only C-grade yarn, but also A-grade yarn as well. Still, aside from the yarn used for Aero Coolbreeze, they didn’t have much of other kinds on hand, which was why he asked.
“Ah, yes. We still have some A-grade yarn left for Dual-Tex.”
Seung-hyun turned back to Yoon Young-mi and smiled.
“Then since we’re making it anyway, make plenty so every factory worker can wear one. I’ll give you an extra bonus for looking after the workers’ welfare.”
“Oh, no, that’s all right. I’m doing it because I want to.”
“No, it should still be done properly. And from the company’s point of view, this level of welfare is something we can absolutely afford. We’ve received investment now, haven’t we? We should save money on this?”
“My, well. Thank you.”
“Factory manager, once you use up the A-grade yarn, just replenish it appropriately.”
“I’ll make sure of it.”
As she walked away, Young-mi was so excited she started asking the workers for their sizes.