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K-fashion, cuteness culture, live shopping, Chinamaxxing, micro-dramas, T-wave: Asia as a territory for the experientialization of trends

June 11, 2026
Première Vision Paris

Enjoy an exclusive preview of the talk "K-fashion, cuteness culture, live shopping, Chinamaxxing, micro-dramas, T-wave: Asia as a territory for the experientialization of trends" presented at Première Vision Paris on 1 September 2026, at 4:00 PM. In collaboration with L'ADN Tendances & Mutations.

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As the West grapples with a crisis of the future, Asia is industrializing its narratives and exporting its cultural codes on a global scale. This structural shift is already reshaping the creative industries. From fashion and beauty to retail, experience has become the new center of gravity.

South Korea leads the way

BTS sells four million copies on the day a new album is released. KPop Demon Hunters becomes Netflix’s biggest hit, reaching 236 million views. Parasite wins the Academy Award for Best Picture. Squid Game turns everything from kimchi and gaming to hustle culture into global conversation points. Welcome to the K-ecosystem, the driving force behind a new generation of Asian cultural narratives and one of the most powerful engines of influence shaping the global imagination today.

This influence is no accident. Hallyu—literally the “Korean Wave”—has been a state-backed strategy since 1997. In the midst of the Asian financial crisis, President Kim Young-sam drew an unexpected lesson from the global success of Jurassic Park: the film’s revenue was equivalent to the export value of 1.5 million Hyundai cars. The country responded by transforming hard power into soft power, industrializing culture and paving the way for a new economy: the fan economy. Three decades later, its impact extends far beyond entertainment, reaching directly into fashion and beauty. If K-beauty has rewritten the rules of global skincare, K-fashion blends futurism with highly codified merchandising. At the heart of this new form of “sweet power” lies cuteness: playful, bold, immersive and perfectly attuned to digital culture. From Jacquemus to Loewe, this creative embrace of the cute has evolved into a language of its own.

Thaïland, the new creative frontier

In the wake of Hallyu, another wave is beginning to rise: the T-wave. Drawing inspiration from Korean fandom culture while forging its own path, Thailand is emerging as a new cultural force. Combining greater social freedom, a confident queer culture and a strong affinity with Korean aesthetics, it is cultivating new communities. For the fashion industry, this remains largely untapped territory.

Read also: Visions Episode 15: 5 Weak Signals Shaping the Future of Fashion

China and the new scale of influence

At the heart of this broader Asian shift stands China as a new standard-bearer. The world’s second-largest economy, the leading exporter of goods, and a key driver of luxury growth for two decades, China long embraced the codes of Western desirability. At its peak, Chinese consumers accounted for nearly 40% of global luxury purchases. Today, however, China is asserting a new form of creative national pride, one that looks outward rather than inward. The rise of China Maxxing perfectly embodies this movement.

If “maxxing” means amplifying or fully embracing something, this social media-born portmanteau embodies the promise of integrating a fantasized cultural imaginary into everyday life. Wearing an Adidas jacket inspired by the Tangzhuang (traditional Chinese jackets), attaching a Labubu charm to a luxury handbag (with sales expected to reach $15 billion by 2026, according to Time), or drinking hot water as a wellness ritual: Chinese cultural heritage is becoming a hybrid aesthetic, blending tradition and modernity. Why pay attention to this signal? Because the movement is powered by a vast ecosystem and an unparalleled capacity for influence: TikTok as a mainstream showcase, micro-dramas as narrative vehicles, Chinawood as an emerging cinematic powerhouse, video games as a driver of technological innovation, and a global diaspora acting as a powerful channel of dissemination. If China is inviting the world to engage with its culture, chances are the world will respond.

Merchtainment and live shopping: retail reinvented

Behind this mosaic of cultural references lies a radically different model of desirability: storytelling. The Gentle Monster flagship store in Paris is a perfect illustration. The Korean eyewear brand has built its identity around “merchtainment”—a blend of merchandise and entertainment—through immersive themed spaces, constantly renewed experiences and the development of a brand lore that transforms purchasing into a sense of belonging. The objective is no longer simply to sell products, but to create emotion.

The same logic is taking hold in the digital sphere through live shopping. Long overlooked in the West, it is now gaining momentum through platforms such as TikTok Shop and Whatnot. In this new retail model, the influencer sells live, the product becomes a story, and the algorithm acts as the programming schedule. The result: 71% of users report having purchased a product on TikTok without intending to do so before watching the video. The impulse is engineered by design—and that design originates in Asia. A clear expectation emerges from this shift: selling a universe, a set of cultural codes, an ecosystem capable of generating stories. The question is no longer simply “What are we selling?” but “What world are we inviting people into?”; no longer “Which target audience are we trying to reach?” but “Which community do we want to engage?” The challenge, in this ongoing Marvelization of fashion, is a formidable one: remaining coherent, standing out within the cultural buzz, without dissolving into it.

Join us on 1 September for an exclusive session with L’ADN to unpack the new codes of Asian desirability and discover how they are reshaping fashion, retail and the creative industries at large.

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