Seventeen
Just when the Philippines—indeed the world—is going gaga over K-pop and Hallyu stars, Kenneth Cobonpue’s furniture gets a share of the spotlight on the stage of the Korean Wave. And the topmost Filipino designer of furniture and home elements is pleasantly surprised himself to see his designs in music videos and K-drama series.
BLACKPINK and BLOOM
The Bloom Lounge Chair—the iconic design of a bud abloom— is used by BLACKPINK. The boy band Seventeen used the red Dragnet chair, inspired by the fishnet, on their album cover.
“The designs are photogenic,” Cobonpue tells TheDiarist.ph.
Dr. Stranger (Dragnet Lounge Chair)
He is unaware about the transactions behind the use of his furniture in Korean entertainment. “I’m not contacted. If it were so, I would have to pay product placement.”
Unknown to Cobonpue, his furniture such as the iconic Dragnet Lounge Chair has been used in the setting of popular K-drama series such as Search:WWW (starring Jang KiYong), Oh My Venus (starring So JiSub), She Was Pretty (Park Seojun), Hyde Jekyll, Me (starring Hyun Bin).
The Cebu creative has developed a global following for years now by earning acclaim in major trade expositions, particularly in Milan, world expos. The industrial designer who studied in New York and Germany gained a celebrity clientele that included Brat Pitt (who got the Cobonpue Voyager). The global clientele is apparently drawn to his whimsical, out-of-the-box designs that use materials indigenous to the Philippines, combined with continually evolving technology to harness the materials and upgrade Filipino artisanship and craftsmanship. Cobonpue is a design talent who meets international standards of manufacturing ·(his family has been in manufacturing and export for more than a generation) and global distribution network.
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- Hyde Jekyll Me (Dragnet Lounge Chair, Chiquita Stool, Zaza)
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- She Was Pretty (BLOOM)
The presence of his designs in Korean culture is one of the fruits of that network. His brand is represented by Indah Korea store in the fashionable Gangnam district in Seoul. The proprietress, who is “passionate” about Kenneth Cobonpue designs, recommends his styles to clients.
When creating, Cobonpue unbridles his imagination like a child. He once said in an interview that his designs make people smile and likewise bring out the child in them.
