Felix Named Face of Korea’s 2026 “Hanbok Wave,” as New Drama “Love in Sync” Teases Emotion-Swapping Romance

South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has selected Stray Kids’ Felix as the face of the government-backed campaign “2026 Hanbok Wave,” marking the seventh year of the project aimed at boosting global awareness of hanbok, the country’s traditional clothing. The announcement on June 17 positions the K-pop idol as a Hallyu ambassador for a promotional push that will feature collaborations with domestic hanbok brands and international displays. In a separate entertainment development, actress Kang Min Ah shared new details about her upcoming romantic comedy Love in Sync, set to premiere on July 4—an additional sign of how Korean pop culture continues to blend global-facing branding with mainstream storytelling.

Felix chosen to headline “2026 Hanbok Wave”

According to Soompi, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, working alongside the Korea Craft and Design Foundation, announced Felix as the official Hallyu artist for “2026 Hanbok Wave.” The campaign’s premise is straightforward but strategically ambitious: partner with well-known Hallyu figures to showcase hanbok as fashion people want to wear, rather than only an artifact tied to heritage.

Now in its seventh year, Hanbok Wave has previously featured major Korean cultural celebrities, including Olympic figure skater Kim Yuna, actress Suzy, Kim Tae Ri, and actor Park Bo-gum. By selecting a member of a major fourth-generation K-pop group, the government is leaning further into the global reach of idol-driven fandom—turning cultural promotion into an extension of Hallyu’s existing global distribution channels.

From brand design to global billboards

As part of the 2026 edition, Felix will collaborate with five domestic hanbok brands to highlight the garment’s elegance and sophistication. Applications for participating brands are open until July 10 for small and medium-sized enterprises, and the selected companies will each produce 10 hanbok designs reflecting Felix’s public image and symbolic qualities.

Those designs will then be used in fashion pictorials and promoted via international and domestic content. Beyond digital campaigns, the project will extend to large-format offline advertising, with billboards planned for cities including Seoul, New York, Paris, and Milan. The geographic spread underscores the campaign’s intent: to reposition hanbok within global fashion awareness, not only Korean tourism or cultural programming.

Jeong Hyang Mi, Director-General of Culture and Arts Policy at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the initiative with Felix could help establish hanbok as “attractive content that you want to wear” among fans worldwide, framing the campaign as both a cultural showcase and a consumer-facing fashion push.

Why the campaign matters for the global fashion conversation

In recent years, Korea’s cultural policy has increasingly treated soft power as an ecosystem—where music, celebrity branding, design industries, and traditional arts reinforce each other. Hanbok Wave is a clear example of this approach: rather than promoting hanbok only through exhibitions or educational programming, the government is outsourcing style interpretation to celebrity-adjacent branding and then channeling the results through high-visibility international marketing.

For participating hanbok makers, the project also functions as an industry platform. The selection of smaller enterprises and the requirement to generate multiple designs can accelerate product development and increase brand recognition, especially when campaign content is amplified through Hallyu-oriented media ecosystems.

Kang Min Ah previews “Love in Sync,” spotlighting character emotion transference

While Hanbok Wave illustrates the cultural branding of Korea’s heritage through pop stardom, the entertainment space is simultaneously pushing narrative-driven romance that leans into viewer empathy. In another development, Kang Min Ah discussed her upcoming romantic comedy Love in Sync, where she plays Yoo Ji An, a star actress and former member of the girl group I WANT.

As described by Soompi, Yoo Ji An is characterized by an inability to understand other people’s emotions—she grew up under strict management and control from childhood. The premise shifts when she meets Cha Eun Hwan, a highly empathetic man, and the two experience an emotional “transference” through a surreal phenomenon. The result is a gradual evolution: the character who rejects empathy begins to understand it, and the relationship becomes the vehicle for personal growth.

Kang Min Ah said she was drawn to the script because the premise feels “fresh and interesting,” especially the challenge of portraying changes that occur when someone’s emotions are transmitted. She also described the character as “pure and lovable,” noting that although Ji An faces criticism for her acting abilities, she works hard and appears cold externally while remaining warmer internally. The actress added that playing an actress gave her extra professional familiarity for conveying complex emotional confusion.

On working with co-star Kim Myung Soo, Kang said he is meticulous in script analysis and thorough in preparation. She described her own style as more improvisational, crediting him as an inspiration and a source of cues during filming. She further emphasized that the drama offers a romance full of excitement while remaining approachable—an invitation to watch with empathy, mirroring the show’s theme.

Love in Sync is scheduled to premiere on July 4 at 10:50 p.m. KST.

What to watch next

For “2026 Hanbok Wave,” the key near-term marker is the brand application window closing on July 10. After selections are made, the campaign will likely reveal first-look hanbok designs and visual content that ties Felix’s public image to specific aesthetic directions—an important test of how effectively the project can translate a K-pop figure’s charisma into traditional garment styling.

On the television front, Love in Sync will draw attention ahead of its July 4 premiere as promotions ramp up around its emotion-transference premise and its central question of whether intimacy can be engineered through empathy. Together, these two entertainment developments—cultural policy using idols as fashion ambassadors and dramas using emotion mechanics to drive audience connection—show a consistent theme in Korea’s current media strategy: global audiences are being courted not only through spectacle, but through carefully packaged narratives about identity, feeling, and belonging.