Special K-Pop

MANILA, Philippines - The Korean Wave, K-Pop culture and everything in between, Bench has it covered.

It cannot be denied, our bond with anything Korean is much deeper than we think. Everything in our lives nowadays has Korea all over it: our phones, the cars that we drive, the soaps that we watch, the noodles that we eat. We love Korea and Korea loves us, and Bench is spreading the love with its K-Pop Summer Collection featuring Super Junior’s Choi Siwon and Lee Donghae.

For the uninitiated, K-Pop is an abbreviation of Korean popular music, a genre consisting of pop, dance, electropop, hip-hop, rock, R&B and electronic music originating from South Korea. Aside from music, K-Pop has grown leaps and bounds over the years, transcending into popular subculture among teenagers and young adults worldwide. With the popularity of fashion and style of Korean idol groups and singers, even the Western world looks to K-Pop for inspiration. A perfect example is Nicki Minaj, from her music to her MTVs, from her outrageous outfits to her makeup/hair style. K-Pop was thought to be a fad but it ended up being a fashion — part of Hallyu or the Korean Wave.

Bench takes pride since Choi Siwon and Lee Donghae chose to join the growing Bench family as its newest celebrity endorsers. This endorsement is a first for a Filipino-owned brand and marks a milestone for Bench as it continues its year–long celebration of its 25th anniversary in the retail industry. 

Siwon and Donghae visited Manila in the past, together with the other members of Super Junior, where they performed sold-out concerts at the Smart Araneta Coliseum during their Super Show Asian Tour last 2010 and 2011. The perfect combination of talent, strong and loyal fan base, and boyish looks sealed the deal in Bench’s selection process. They join the likes of international celebrities Bruno Mars, David Archuleta, Lucy Hale of Pretty Little Liars and Michael Trevino of The Vampire Diaries, who have also signed as Bench endorsers. The Bench K-Pop campaign is expected to catapult the brand into conquering the growing K-Pop market and reach out to the droves of loyal Super Junior fans both locally and internationally.

Bench’s clearly knows the pulse of the youth, as it topped the recent “Teen Research Unlimited (TRU) Study: 2012 Philippine Edition,” giving the brand the honor of being the most preferred among Filipino teens today. Korean drama and Korean pop music (K-Pop) fever have clearly taken the nation by storm, and just like the retail giant, Hallyu or the Korean wave is heading for global domination.

For the much-anticipated campaign featuring Siwon and Donghae on billboards and online, the boys will be sporting trendy pieces from Bench that are perfect for this summer. Hip cuts and lively color will anchor the collection. Collectible shirt prints that are expected to sell like hotcakes are also to be released. Designed with a “no fuss approach,” the Bench creative team came up with a capsule collection that is both pleasing to the eye and comfortable. Whether it’s Siwon’s gray and blue combi cotton pique shirt paired with dark OJ Americana denims or Donghae’s “One Earth” orange baseball tee paired with navy carrot trousers, hearts are sure to melt with these sartorial treats from Bench.

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