By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
Korean celebrities turned into fashion models for one night for the first-ever Hallyu Stars Fashion Festival held at Seoul Plaza, Saturday evening.
Shinhwa member Andy, singers Son Ho-young, Bada and Kim Hyun-jeong and actress Park Eun-hye, were only some of the celebrities who walked down the fashion runway wearing stylish creations of Korean designers.
While it is no longer unusual to find a celebrity strutting their stuff on the fashion runways, the Hallyu Stars Fashion Festival represented the Seoul government's efforts to promote the Korean fashion industry with the help of the popularity of hallyu or Korean Wave.
Seoul Fashion Center (SFC), a government center created to promote the fashion industry, hopes Korea's designers would also achieve the same level of success as its stars. SFC director-general Hahn Seong-hee said the Hallyu Stars Fashion Festival would help attract attention to the fashion industry.
Top designer Lie Sang-bong, whose designs make use of hangeul or Korean alphabet, said hallyu allows greater cultural exchange between Koreans and other countries.