Ko Eun-kyoung, godmother of Korean fashion models

YGKPLUS President Ko Eun-kyoung, center, poses with her agency models. / Courtesy of YGKPLUS

• Published Feb 11, 2016 3:55 PM KST
• Updated Feb 11, 2016 3:55 PM KST

By Kim Jae-heun

There is always an unknown hero behind every successful person who often goes unrevealed. Fashion model-turned-CEO Ko Eun-kyoung is one of those hidden heroes, often called the godmother of the Korean fashion industry. She is now the president of YGKPLUS, a fashion model agency that merged with YG Entertainment in February 2014.

Ko is not a big industry name in Korea like YG Entertainment’s chief producer Yang Hyun-suk or the CEO of JYP Entertainment Park Jin-young, but no top Korean model has not passed through the hands of the female CEO.

Ko has worked with top models, from the 1990s and 2000s including Cha Seung-won, Noh Sun-mi, Song Kyung-a and Jang Yoon-ju to the current hottest fashion icons Hyoni Kang, Choi So-ra, Nam Joo-hyuk and Park Hyeong-seop. She has discovered and trained nearly 1,000 models.

The fashion agency president has a glamorous background in modeling herself. She debuted in 1982 and worked as a model until 1989, but her glory days began soon after she retired from the runway when she became a model instructor.

“My original dream was to be a diplomat,” said Ko during an interview with The Korea Times last week. “Then, while modeling as a part-time job in university, I got to visit Japan, New York, Paris and Milan. I thought it was the coolest job because you can be a cultural diplomat by traveling around the world. It was the time when traveling abroad was very rare and a visa was required to enter Japan.”

Ko was also a talented teacher and she decided to foster junior models once she discovered her first student Cha, who swept the Korean fashion industry in the 90s and became a popular actor.

“I first met Cha when he came to my model academy with his friend in a high school uniform,” Ko said. “Cha came because of his friend and he said he had no interest in becoming a model. But I knew Cha was a born model and I told him to visit me again a week after thinking over my proposal. He came back in three days.”

The modeling instructor also discovered actor Kim Min-joon and debuted then-model Gang Dong-won at a Gucci show, both of who are major celebrities now in Korea.

For Ko, teaching is what she loves to do and what she is good at. It is her biggest joy to watch a rookie model become a star.

Ko moved on to play a larger-scale role by joining the SBS Super Model contest as an instructor in 1991, staying for 20 years. She took a break for a while but is returning to the show again this year.

Ko also taught models at Dongduk Women’s University and Seoul Arts College for four years each in the mid- to late 2000s, while establishing her modeling agency Discover Concealed Model (DCM) in 2000. She started the company with top models including Noh, Song and Jang, who were actively engaging in European Fashion Week events. Ko led the way to establishing a modeling academy to discover new faces based on her experience while forming a management bureau to promote star models. Later, DCM grew to hold almost 400 contracted models, and became the country’s largest fashion model agency.

“There was no organized system for model agencies when I first started modeling. I never got to sign any contract with my company and everything worked through mouth to mouth. Modeling was considered a poor job. But now, a B-list model earns more monthly pay than an average salaryman. I am happy that models now get paid fairly,” Ko said.

In 2008, Ko left DCM to established a new model management called K-Plus. It took three years for her to stabilize the company and prepare for a merger with YG Entertainment. The president of the new modeling agency knew the fashion industry would create a synergy effect with entertainment companies by helping models into actors and actresses.

The timing was perfect too, as models-turned-actors Kim Woo-bin and Lee Jong-suk rose to stardom by successfully demonstrating their acting ability on the silver screen and in TV drama series.

“I knew YG’s Yang from before, and in the late 2013 we talked about merging the companies, as some models were already successful in turning into actors and actresses,” Ko said. “At the same time, I was also worried because YG Entertainment is better known as a record label and we might not benefit from each other.”

But she said Yang and his brother Yang Min-suk, the CEO of the entertainment company, proposed the merger, as the idea of the modeltainer (model and entertainer) started receiving the spotlight in the film and TV sectors.

By coincidence, models-turned-actors Cha, Gang and Choi Ji-woo joined YG Entertainment too.

“Our models’ entering the acting field was the biggest synergy effect I expected and producing content was second,” she said. Last year, the partnership found a hit with their first web series, “We Broke Up” featuring Sandara Park and Kang Seung-yoon from YG Entertainment.

This year, YGKPLUS will roll out four joint productions including web series and entertainment shows with a Chinese production company.

Ko is also planning to open a model academy in Bangkok this year, and Shanghai and Beijing by next year.

The president of the modeling agency’s ultimate goal is to build a top entertainment school in Korea.

“I am looking for passionate, diligent and patient candidates,” she said. “You may lack body proportions but you can make up for it with strong characteristics or aura. In the end, I think it’s all about how hard you try and how desperate you are that decide how far you go.”