Handsome, a fashion affiliate of Hyundai Department Store Group, is seeking to break out of a long slump and improve its earnings. Handsome saw both sales and operating profit decline year over year for 10 straight quarters from the second quarter of 2023 through the third quarter of 2025, but it managed a rebound in the fourth quarter of last year. Recently, as fashion consumer sentiment has been recovering mainly at department stores and the burden from carryover inventories (items released more than a year ago) has eased, the industry backdrop is also showing gradual improvement.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System (DART) on the 12th, Handsome posted fourth-quarter sales of 463.7 billion won and operating profit of 27.2 billion won last year. Sales rose 6.4% and operating profit climbed 30.1% from a year earlier. It is the first time in 11 quarters since the first quarter of 2023 that Handsome's sales and operating profit both grew year over year.
Handsome had continued a weak earnings trend as a slowdown in fashion consumption overlapped with inventory burdens. With consumer sentiment dampened by high interest rates and inflation, and weather variables such as unusually warm winters piling on, sales of seasonal apparel also fell short of expectations.
The expanded inventory burden also squeezed profitability. Handsome's inventories rose from 610.5 billion won at the end of 2023 to 624.3 billion won at the end of 2024, and climbed to as much as 679.7 billion won in the third quarter of last year. Typically, when sales slow at fashion companies, inventory builds quickly, and once the season passes, they must clear it through discounting. As Handsome's carryover inventory increased from 2023, the share of outlet sales and discount promotions expanded, leading to lower profits.
However, Handsome achieved a sizable inventory drawdown in the fourth quarter of last year, with sales of carryover items up 8% from a year earlier, and there is an assessment that much of the related burden has been eased starting this year. Yoo Jeong-hyeon, an analyst at Daishin Securities, said, "Handsome cleared all of its carryover inventory in the fourth quarter of last year," and noted, "A period of significant improvement in sales and margins has arrived."
Along with the recovery in consumer sentiment, there are also signs that department store fashion sales are gradually picking up. Handsome operates its key brands—TIME, MINE, SYSTEM, and SJSJ—mainly through department store channels.
According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources, among the product categories sold at domestic department stores in January this year, sales related to women's suits rose 21.1% from a year earlier. Women's casual apparel and men's apparel increased 17% and 11.6%, respectively. It is seen as the result of customers with greater spending power, boosted by government stock market support measures, ramping up purchases in channels centered on high-end apparel such as department stores.
Handsome is also pursuing strategies to strengthen brand competitiveness at home and abroad. TIME, Handsome's flagship women's fashion brand, was recently listed on the official calendar of Paris Fashion Week as the first among domestic ready-to-wear brands for women. Paris Fashion Week is regarded as one of the most prestigious fashion shows along with London, Milan and New York.
To be listed at Paris Fashion Week, Handsome set up a dedicated design studio for a "global collection" within the TIME division in 2020. Since 2024, it has conducted "off-calendar" presentations during Paris Fashion Week to showcase products to overseas buyers and fashion experts, continuing behind-the-scenes efforts for years.
Having held fashion shows only in Korea and Europe until now, Handsome tested the waters for expansion into Southeast Asia by staging a SYSTEM and SYSTEM HOMME brand show in Bangkok, Thailand, in September last year. While pushing wholesale contracts with Thai retail companies, it plans to increase customer touchpoints by opening pop-up stores (temporary stores) or official stores in Thailand.
Handsome also created a multi-brand flagship space, "The Handsome House Seoul," in Daechi-dong, Seoul, last month. It brings together Handsome's core brands in a complex store format that combines a showroom, exhibitions and brand experience spaces. It is seen to have successfully settled into the district, with sales in the first 30 days reaching 120% of the target.
An industry official said, "Recently, there has been a trend of fashion consumption recovering mainly through department store channels," and added, "Corporations with a high proportion of department store women's wear brands, such as Handsome, are more likely to feel earnings improvement relatively quickly."