Selling out of her favorite products instantly…! The “New First Lady Phenomenon” in Korea

She works wearing a pair of glasses given to her by a fan, which cost about 50,000 won (about $5,000), but they look good when she wears them.

On May 16, when the picture was uploaded with these comments, orders for the rounded glasses worn by “Mrs.” poured in.

The post was made by Kang Sinop, a Korean lawyer. He is the chairman of “Gongsarang (Love),” a fan site for Kim Gong-hee (49), the wife of the new president, Yun Seong-yeol (61). The fan site, which was launched in December of last year, has quickly grown in membership. The number of members has quickly increased from 30,000 at the beginning to more than 90,000 at present.

Mrs. Kim’s popularity is soaring. She has a straightforward personality and is not pretentious. Even after she became the first lady, she is still popular for her folksy behavior, such as taking out a meal at a downtown market. She also readily discloses her frugal personal life on Instagram. Her favorite pair of white sandals (about 3,500 yen) on Instagram became a topic of conversation and sold out at every store.

More than 2,500 “Kim Jian Ki” items on mail-order sites.

Mrs. Kim’s influence is enormous. Whenever she uploads images of her favorite products as well as her sandals, she is inundated with inquiries. They are said to sell out in no time.

On May 3, Kim visited the famous Sae-in Temple in central Korea. The midi-length skirt (designed to cover the knees) she wore at that time, which cost about 5,500 yen, was called the “Gonghee Skirt” and became very popular on the Internet. The mail-order site says there is a month-long wait for delivery.

A search for “Kim Jian Ki” on “Neighbor Shopping,” a major Korean online shopping site, returns more than 2,500 hits. There are about 1,500 results for “Kim Jian Ki skirts” alone. Since they are reasonably priced, Mrs. Kim’s possessions have exploded in popularity, especially among women of her own age,” he says.

It is not only Mrs. Kim’s favorite items that have become a hit. Her husband, President Yun’s personal belongings are also becoming popular among men.

On May 14, Mrs. Yun and her husband paid a surprise visit to Shinsegae Department Store in downtown Seoul. It was a surprise visit, which they had not even informed the ‘Cheong Wa Dae’ (the South Korean presidential office) about. Seeing that President Yun’s shoes were getting old, Mrs. Kim invited her to go to the department store to buy some new ones.

The shoes she purchased were simple loafers without laces, which were reasonably priced at about 19,000 yen, and the department store immediately received a large order. The sky blue tie that Mrs. Kim chose, which President Yun likes to wear, is also selling well on the Internet.

Mrs. Kim is influencing the general public even more than President Yun. It seems that she is attracting even more attention than President Yun.