"Spending 10 Million Won Yet They Keep Coming Back"... This Ring Loved by Jennie and SHINee [Luxury World]

Jennie and SHINee Celebrities' Beloved Cocoring
Seongsu-dong Cococrush Popup... 200 People Open Run
Cococrush Collection, Symbol of Chanel Jewelry
Rings, Bracelets Layering Popularity Drives Sales Surge

Singer Jennie. [Source: Jennie Instagram]

On the 9th, Chanel's Coco Crush pop-up store opened in Seongsu-dong, Seongdong-gu, Seoul. Visitors began to gather right at the 1 PM opening time, quickly forming a waiting line of about 200 people. Store staff checked each visitor's reservation status one by one through a tablet before allowing entry. The age range of visitors varied from early 20s college student couples to women in their mid-50s. This was the first time the Coco Crush pop-up store opened at a location other than a department store. Because of this, entry to the store was made through a pre-reservation website, and all time slots were fully booked until the last day of the pop-up on the 21st.

Sculpture placed at the entrance of the Coco Crush pop-up store.
Photo by Minji Lee

Coco Crush is one of the jewelry collections (lines) from the French luxury brand Chanel. First introduced in 2015, the collection mainly includes rings, bracelets, necklaces, and earrings. The quilted (grid) pattern is the symbol of the collection. Although Coco Crush has been on the market for less than 10 years, it has established itself as a representative collection of Chanel jewelry. The ring known as the 'Coco Ring' is the flagship product.

Cococrush collection products placed at the first floor entrance area.
[Photo by Minji Lee]

The Coco Crush collection became known to domestic consumers starting in 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a surge in revenge spending, increasing interest in luxury fashion items such as bags and clothing, as well as luxury jewelry. At that time, the representative product, the Coco Crush ring, was frequently worn by Jennie, who was called the 'human Chanel,' earning the nickname 'Jennie ring' and leading to explosive popularity.

As a result, Chanel's jewelry sales in 2020 grew about fivefold (400%) compared to the previous year. Having achieved significant jewelry sales in the Korean market, Chanel subsequently appointed Jennie as the ambassador for the Coco Crush collection and launched full-scale marketing efforts. Recently, new Coco Crush products have been unveiled first in Korea. The newly released products include a high-end Coco Crush line featuring rings and bracelets engraved with quilted patterns and densely set diamonds, as well as quilted-pattern earrings that can be purchased individually.

Coco Crush has become a sales driver for Chanel as the trend of wearing multiple pieces of the same product has taken hold. Chanel's marketing strategy encourages repurchasing. For example, rings are released in three colors (beige gold, yellow gold, white gold) and three sizes (mini, small, large), allowing customers to mix and match different colors and sizes to wear on multiple fingers or both hands.

This style of wearing rings has often been spotted on celebrities and influencers' social media (SNS), creating a trend that Coco Crush products look stylish when worn in multiples. Earrings and bracelets also follow this trend, with people wearing two earrings on one ear and 2-3 bracelets on both arms. These products are not restricted by gender; recently, the boy group SHINee attracted attention by wearing multiple Crush rings according to their preferences to celebrate their 16th debut anniversary.

Wearing three Coco Rings on both hands easily exceeds 10 million KRW in price. For example, wearing a large-sized beige gold ring (6.05 million KRW) on the left index finger and a small-sized white gold ring (4.5 million KRW) and a mini-sized yellow gold ring (2.37 million KRW) on the right hand totals 12.92 million KRW according to the official website prices.

For mini-sized bangle bracelets, it is common to wear white gold (7.83 million KRW) and beige gold (7.46 million KRW) or yellow gold (7.31 million KRW) products together, and purchasing two pieces costs over 15 million KRW.

Store staff also recommended matching two or more products. A staff member met at the pop-up store explained, "For rings, customers usually start by purchasing one mini-sized ring, but eventually, after buying one, they come back to buy more. Many customers who purchase Coco Crush as wedding bands want to wear them like fashion rings and often buy additional rings in different sizes."

As interest in Coco Crush products grows, transactions are also active on secondhand luxury platforms. According to the secondhand luxury platform Gugus, the most popular ring product in the online jewelry section is Chanel's 'Coco Crush.' Among the top 20 products ranked by popularity (clicks), eight were Coco Crush rings. This means that Coco Crush is preferred over traditional luxury jewelry brands such as Van Cleef & Arpels' 'Perlee' and 'Alhambra,' Bulgari's 'Serpenti,' Chaumet's 'Be My Love,' and Damiani's 'Luce.'

Although the Coco Crush collection started in 2015 and has a shorter history than other luxury jewelry products, it is now regarded as a symbol of Chanel jewelry.

As the popularity of the Coco Crush collection continues, it is estimated to have played a significant role in Chanel Korea's sales growth. Except for the first sales disclosure in 2020, Chanel does not provide detailed sales figures by division. Looking at Chanel Korea's performance, sales nearly doubled from 930 billion KRW in 2020 to 1.704 trillion KRW last year.