A centuries-old typeface and a 17th-century novel are about to show up on sweatshirts and baseball caps.
Korean fashion label Matin Kim, operated by Hago Haus, is releasing a seven-piece Hangeul collection Friday to mark the 100th anniversary of Hangeul Day. The designs draw on artifacts from the National Museum of Korea.
The collection is a collaboration with the National Museum Foundation of Korea, which runs MU:DS, the museum's merchandise brand.
The partnership taps into a booming museum merchandise market. Annual sales of MU:DS provisionally topped 40 billion won ($29.9 million) in 2025, the highest since the foundation was established in 2004. The surge came after Netflix's animated film "KPop Demon Hunters" sparked worldwide interest in Korean traditional culture.
The lineup includes apparel, bags, key rings and caps. Each piece reworks Korea's alphabet into the brand's modern style.
The first source is the museum's collection of Hangeul metal movable type, which shows how the script was printed and used during the Joseon era (1392-1910). Matin Kim's designers studied the shapes of individual letters and how the type was arranged, then turned those into contemporary graphic patterns.
The second source is "Kuunmong," or "The Cloud Dream of the Nine." Kim Man-jung wrote the novel in the late Joseon period, and it is one of the best-known classic novels written in Korean. The brand also referenced "Kuunmongdo," a painting that tells the novel's story in both text and images. Matin Kim created new graphics based on scenes and moods from the story.
The collection will be sold through Matin Kim's online and offline stores and at the National Museum of Korea's gift shop.
"This collaboration was planned to shed new light, in Matin Kim's own way, on the formal beauty and cultural symbolism of the Hangeul heritage in the National Museum of Korea's collection on the 100th anniversary of Hangeul Day. Drawing on inspiration from the museum's holdings, we hope more people can experience the value of Hangeul in a special way," a Hago Haus official said.
yoohong@heraldcorp.com
