.jpg "BLACKPINK Brand Collaborations & Luxury Ambassadorships: Chanel, Celine, Dior, and Beyond")
Behind the Scenes of Musical Collaborations
The collaboration with Lady Gaga on “Sour Candy” was actually completed a few months before the pandemic. However, the members did not meet physically in the studio; everything was done remotely. For Lisa's rap part, Gaga specifically asked them to slow down the beat because she wanted her vocal energy to come to the forefront.
In the song “Ice Cream” recorded with Selena Gomez, a small detail that often goes unnoticed is that Jennie played an active role in the songwriting. The line “Look so good yeah look so sweet” came from a phrase Jennie saw in an English advertisement and spontaneously wrote down in her notebook.
The song “Kiss and Make Up” with Dua Lipa was actually a project chosen to improve BLACKPINK's English vocal skills. While preparing for the performance, the group practiced only in English for nearly two weeks, during which Lisa's accent almost shifted to Australian.
In an interview after their collaboration, Lady Gaga described Rosé's vocal tone as “fragile yet powerful, something rare in modern pop,” and revealed for the first time that she wanted to make a special ballad song with her.
Deep Connections with Fashion Houses
Jennie already owned over 12 vintage pieces from Chanel in her personal wardrobe before collaborating with the brand. The brand chose her not because of her personal passion for the pieces but because of her ability to reinterpret them in her own style. Jisoo's relationship with Dior goes beyond being a brand ambassador; Dior's creative director, Maria Grazia Chiuri, added a detail inspired by traditional Korean knot art to the 2022 collection at Jisoo's suggestion.
Rosé's connection with Celine began when the brand's creative director, Hedi Slimane, first saw her on the Coachella stage. As soon as Rosé stepped off the stage, she received a direct message from Slimane through her manager: “I want to do something with you, but not fashion—I want to create a moment.” Lisa's collaboration with Bulgari created a breakthrough in the perception of luxury in Thailand. After the deal was announced, Bulgari store visits in Thailand increased by 43% in just three weeks. The brand designed and released a special “Lalisa Edition” necklace for Lisa at its Thailand branch.
Visible Impact in Advertising Campaigns
BLACKPINK's Asia-focused campaign with Pepsi wasn't limited to social media engagement. In the month the campaign was launched, Pepsi's brand awareness among young people in Southeast Asia increased by 17%. Interestingly, this increase wasn't just due to online ads but also the impact of a playful reference to Pepsi in the song lyrics.
After Jisoo's Cartier campaign was released, the brand's Korean website temporarily crashed. 60% of the traffic on the site came from links directing users to the campaign visuals. Cartier began modeling Jisoo's “quiet elegance” profile for a separate customer segment within the brand.
After Rosé's diamond campaign with Tiffany & Co., the number of young female users signing up to Tiffany's online store in Australia doubled in three weeks. According to the brand, this was directly due to her young, alternative sense of elegance.
Lisa's collaboration with MAC Cosmetics exceeded all expectations for makeup sales. In a campaign called “Lisa's Look,” her lip color combination sold out globally in just four hours. The brand designed its physical store windows in Thailand for the first time with a Lisa-focused concept instead of an influencer campaign.
Positioning and Perception Change in the Fashion Industry
The moment BLACKPINK redefined the classic “K-pop star” definition in the fashion scene was their collective appearance at Paris Fashion Week. There, they all participated as the faces of different brands; this was a first because no music group had ever been accepted as the promotional face of four different luxury brands at the same time.
With Jennie becoming a Chanel ambassador, the brand saw its Instagram follower count increase by 1.5 million in just two weeks. Chanel's content strategy team used Jennie's appearance analysis to adjust color and framing preferences for their 2022 digital campaigns. Due to Jisoo's position at Dior, a dress with a hanbok-like structure was featured in Dior's global campaign for the first time in 2021. The dress was named “Jisoo's Vision” by the designer, but this information was not included in the official catalog.
What BLACKPINK Brings as Brand Ambassadors
Following Jennie's collaboration with HERA Cosmetics, Korea's “digital cosmetic consultation” system was integrated with her face for the first time. Users shopped through a makeup recommendation algorithm filtered according to Jennie's facial features. HERA named this system “Jennie Inspired AI,” and during the three-month campaign period, website traffic increased by 80%.
Jisoo's limited-edition collection with Line Friends featured a character named “Chichoo,” which became one of the best-selling products not only in South Korea but also in Indonesia and Taiwan. According to the brand's statement, this character reflects that Jisoo has the largest audience of children and young people among BLACKPINK members.
Lisa's social media campaign with Celine led the brand to invest in its first TikTok ad. Lisa's TikTok dance challenge reached 120 million views in just six days, and by the end of the campaign, Celine's “cool factor” score among the young demographic increased by 22%.
Rosé's collaboration with YSL Beauty resulted in a special “Rosé Lip Kit” developed by the brand, which was released in only seven countries worldwide. The country with the highest sales was not South Korea, but Canada. The brand interpreted this result as “global but non-mainstream influence.”
BLACKPINK's Strategic Choices in Collaboration
BLACKPINK's brand selections are significantly influenced by the members' personal interests and lifestyles. For example, before signing on for the Bulgari campaign, Lisa presented the group's styling team with a presentation about Thailand's royal jewelry and requested that this information be incorporated into the campaign's concept. Jennie works not only as a model but also as a style consultant in her collaborations with fashion houses. The design of a hat in Chanel's 2021 Spring collection was inspired by a headpiece that Jennie often wore in her childhood photos.
Jisoo had been using Dior's “Dior Addict Lip Glow” series, featured in the brand's beauty section, for years before being chosen as the face of the campaign. Brand executives said they decided to capitalize on her natural loyalty. Rosé's fashion choices are described by YSL as “romantic depression aesthetics.” Although this phrase does not appear in the brand's digital catalogs, it is a term used for her in YSL's internal communications.
Cultural Impact of Relationships with Luxury Brands
BLACKPINK's global campaigns have not only boosted sales but also sparked cultural shifts. Lisa's collaboration with Cartier in Thailand changed the perception that luxury brands only work with Western celebrities. Following this campaign, five different French brands began collaborating with local influencers in Thailand within a year.
The accessories used in Jennie's “Coco Crush” campaign with Chanel sparked a trend in the fashion world known as the “Jennie effect.” The back-to-back pairing of small hoop earrings influenced TikTok and Instagram fashion not only in Korea but also in France, Germany, and Italy.
Following Jisoo's participation in Paris Fashion Week, the number of Asian representatives on Dior's VIP list increased by 35% the following year. Dior introduced this metric as the “Jisoo Expansion Index” in its promotional strategy report for the first time. After Rosé's Coachella outfit, YSL created a limited edition outfit called “Coachella Rosé Look” in its stores worldwide. First sold in Tokyo and London stores, the series sold out in the first week.
Digital Campaigns and BLACKPINK's Social Media Power
In Lisa's collaboration with MAC Cosmetics, the brand launched its first-ever campaign exclusively on TikTok. A special effects filter was developed for the “Powder Kiss Look” theme, and it was tried by 1 million users within three days. MAC reported this level of engagement as a “global record for organic growth.”
Rosé's digital Vogue shoot for YSL Beauty became one of the most-watched cosmetic campaign videos on YouTube. The video surpassed 10 million views within 48 hours of its release, prompting Vogue to shift its digital content strategy toward video-focused content.
Jennie's “Jentle Home” campaign with eyewear brand Gentle Monster was supported by a special interactive site offering a virtual shopping experience. Visitors could explore a virtual Jennie home and try on products. Over 2 million visitors accessed the site within the first week, which was double the traffic the brand had anticipated for the entire year.
Jisoo's Cartier promotional campaign became the most-liked jewelry ad on Instagram within 24 hours. BLACKPINK fans filtered the campaign visuals and reposted them as “Jisoo-edit,” paving the way for Cartier's digital assets to be integrated with community content.
Moments When BLACKPINK Members Got Involved in Fashion Design
Jennie didn't just model for Calvin Klein's lingerie campaign; she also had a direct influence on the design decisions for some of the pieces in the collection. In particular, during the conceptualization of the pastel-colored bralettes, Jennie presented examples from her own wardrobe and suggested a “younger but simpler” style.
During Lisa's participation in Celine campaigns, the form of the leather details added to the brand's shoe collection was the result of her search for a solution to the comfort issues she experienced with her stage shoes. Hedi Slimane redesigned the sole thickness to address Lisa's issue of her shoes slipping during performances.
Rosé, while appearing in YSL campaigns, emphasized “matte and deep colors instead of shimmer” in lipstick and eyeliner designs. The brand's creative team took this suggestion into consideration and highlighted “Ash Berry,” Rosé's favorite shade, in the color palette of the 2023 collection.
In Jisoo's relationship with Dior, the only campaign in which she directly intervened in the fashion aspect was the Fall/Winter 2022 collection. She suggested traditional Korean weaving motifs, which were incorporated into Dior's fabric patterns, adding a cultural dimension to the collection.
BLACKPINK's Return on Investment for Brands
Following Jennie's Chanel campaign, the brand's sales in South Korea increased by 20% in a month, but the most notable development occurred in Japan. Chanel's Japan Instagram account doubled its follower count after the Jennie campaign. Lisa's Bulgari campaign not only impacted luxury jewelry sales but also the brand's perfume segment. The post promoting the perfume Lisa wore became Bulgari Beauty's most clicked post that year. Based on this data, the brand rebranded the perfume Lisa used as “Lalisa Bloom.”
The images from Jisoo's Dior campaign were used on the cover of French Elle magazine that month. This marked the first time Dior had featured a K-pop idol on the cover of a global fashion magazine. Following Rosé's collaboration with YSL, sales of watches on the brand's online store saw a significant increase. In particular, the slim-strap watch model she wore in the campaign became one of the rare accessories to be re-produced in Europe.