Riding off the success of Korean pop, three artists—including CL—have their eyes set on cracking the stateside market.
On a warm Saturday morning, Lee Chae-rin—better known as CL—is standing outside the Alexander Wang store in Soho, New York. People passing by do a double-take—she’s striking, with dyed silver hair and a beatific smile. It doesn’t take long for a curious passerby to find CL on Instagram, where she has more than 5 million followers.
And finally, there’s also Eric Nam, who grew up in Atlanta and was initially planning to be a consultant before, in his own words, “life happened” and he ended up becoming a big star in Korea. Now, Nam is working to return to his roots in America.
Park Sa-lim, Seoul