Gentle Monster may be one of the most recognizable names to emerge from South Korea’s fashion industry, but behind its surreal stores, oversized frames and global collaborations sits a much larger company — IICOMBINED.
Ask who owns Gentle Monster and one name often comes up first: Hankook Kim.
That answer, however, only tells part of the story.
Gentle Monster is officially owned by IICOMBINED Co., Ltd., the Seoul-based company behind the eyewear label and a growing portfolio of fashion, beauty, food and lifestyle concepts. Gentle Monster’s own current terms of use explicitly identify IICOMBINED as the owner of the brand.
And the company itself was built around two men whose roles have been distinctly different.
Jae Wook Oh and Hankook Kim
Gentle Monster was founded in 2011 by Jae Wook “Jay” Oh and Hankook Kim.
When L Catterton announced its investment in the company in 2017, it described their partnership clearly: Kim was driving Gentle Monster’s creative side, while Oh supplied the business insight required to build sustainable growth.
That division helps explain why Kim became the name most closely associated with Gentle Monster internationally.
His influence can be seen throughout the company’s unconventional approach to branding. Gentle Monster did not simply design sunglasses and then build stores in which to sell them. It turned retail itself into part of the product.
Stores became rotating exhibitions filled with kinetic sculptures, architectural installations, surreal environments and concepts that could sometimes feel closer to contemporary art museums than traditional eyewear boutiques.
That formula helped transform Gentle Monster into one of the defining brands of South Korea’s new global creative economy. Vogue has described its stores as experiential spaces that operate much more like galleries than conventional boutiques, while Business of Fashion lists Kim among the figures shaping the international fashion industry.
But creative visibility and corporate ownership are not necessarily the same thing.
So Who Actually Owns IICOMBINED?
A 2026 draft corporate filing published through Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing provides one of the clearest recent pictures of IICOMBINED’s ownership.
The filing states that Jae Wook Oh, together with related parties, holds 43.2% of IICOMBINED and is its ultimate beneficial owner. It also states that no other shareholder directly or indirectly controls 30% or more of the company.
That distinction matters.
Hankook Kim remains central to the Gentle Monster story and continues to be widely described as its founder and chief executive or creative driving force. But when the question is specifically who owns Gentle Monster, the corporate answer is IICOMBINED — with the most recently disclosed controlling ownership position linked to Oh and his related parties.
And No — LVMH Does Not Own Gentle Monster
Another common misconception is that Gentle Monster belongs to LVMH.
It does not.
In 2017, L Catterton Asia led an investment in IICOMBINED alongside Groupe Arnault, the investment company controlled by the family of LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault.
At the time, reports described the investment as a minority position. The deal gave Gentle Monster powerful connections to the global luxury ecosystem, but it did not turn the Korean company into an LVMH-owned brand.
That distinction is significant because Gentle Monster has remained fundamentally a Korean-built brand while using outside capital to accelerate its international expansion.
IICOMBINED Is Becoming an Empire
Eyewear is now only one part of the story.
IICOMBINED’s portfolio also includes Tamburins, its rapidly expanding fragrance and beauty business; experimental dessert and café concept NUDAKE; headwear label ATiiSSU; and tableware brand NUFLAAT.
Together, the brands reveal a strategy that goes well beyond selling individual products.
IICOMBINED is building an ecosystem around design, architecture, retail, food, beauty and culture.
The common denominator is experience.
Whether the product is a pair of glasses, perfume or dessert, the company repeatedly builds an entire visual universe around it.
That strategy has attracted more investment.
In 2026, Asian private equity firm ZWC Partners invested in IICOMBINED to support international expansion and product innovation. Terms were not officially disclosed, although reports citing local media placed IICOMBINED’s valuation at approximately 3.35 trillion won, or roughly $2.18 billion, at the time of the transaction.
The Next Business Could Be Technology
Gentle Monster’s newest move could push the company into an entirely different category.
The brand is collaborating with Google and Samsung on Intelligent Eyewear, combining Gentle Monster frame design with Google’s Gemini AI technology and Samsung’s hardware expertise. Google and Samsung publicly introduced the partnership at Google I/O in May 2026.
Gentle Monster’s current website says the eyewear can provide features including real-time translation, navigation, visual understanding and contextual AI assistance. U.S. preorders are scheduled to begin November 12 ahead of a planned December launch.
It is a logical next chapter.
Gentle Monster spent more than a decade turning eyewear from a functional accessory into an object of fashion, architecture and cultural identity.
Now it has an opportunity to do something similar with wearable technology.
More Than a Founder Story
Gentle Monster’s success ultimately makes more sense when viewed as the result of a partnership rather than the creation of a single celebrity founder.
Hankook Kim helped create the imagination. Jae Wook Oh helped create the business capable of scaling it. IICOMBINED became the structure that allowed both ideas to grow.
The result is no longer simply an eyewear company.
It is one of South Korea’s most ambitious creative businesses — and Gentle Monster may only be the beginning.