Where American heritage finds its new voice — Stray Kids’ Hyunjin takes Melrose Avenue and rewrites what GUESS means to a generation that never knew borders.
The Intersection of Two Worlds
On a Thursday afternoon in West Hollywood, something remarkable happened on Melrose Avenue. Fans had been gathering since the night before — sleeping outside, forming lines that snaked past San Vicente and beyond — not for a concert, not for a film premiere, but for a two-hour pop-up at a denim store. At the center of it all was one person: Hwang Hyunjin, rapper, singer, visual artist, and now the global face of GUESS and GUESS Jeans.
The scene read like a collision between two eras of cool. California sun blazed over the GUESS Jeans flagship — a brand anchored in the same Los Angeles soil since the 1980s — while hundreds of STAYs, the fiercely devoted global fandom of Stray Kids, held their phones aloft, hearts already surrendered. A dedicated billboard installation had been unveiled above the store. LED campaign visuals wrapped the exterior façade. And when Hyunjin stepped out, one hand raised, rings catching the light, the crowd’s response was something beyond noise. It was recognition.
Modern Heritage
GUESS is many things to many people — a Sunset Strip legend, a ’90s denim archetype, a global lifestyle emblem. But in 2026, the brand made a definitive statement about where it wants to go: it chose Hyunjin. The first-ever Global Brand Ambassador for both GUESS and GUESS Jeans, announced in March and already reshaping the conversation around what American fashion can look like when filtered through a Korean lens.
The campaign concept, built around the theme of Modern Heritage, is a careful balancing act. Classic GUESS Jeans silhouettes — denim shirts, straight-leg trousers, relaxed-fit Heritage jeans, the white rib tank — are presented without irony or nostalgia. They are simply worn, lived in, made present. Hyunjin’s own physical presence does what a thousand mood boards cannot: he makes these pieces feel inevitable. Wide-leg and bootcut fits look cinematic on him. The denim overshirt hanging open, cuffs rolled, bracelet stack catching the California light — it’s effortless in the way only the most deliberate styling can be.
“Denim by GUESS Jeans is a classic recreated right now, and I am happy to open this chapter in LA.” — Hyunjin
The Artist Behind the Face
To understand what Hyunjin brings to this partnership, you have to understand what he is beyond the glossy campaign shots. Debut with Stray Kids came on March 25, 2018, via JYP Entertainment — and in the eight years since, Hyunjin has evolved from emerging idol to one of K-pop’s most genre-defying individual forces. His role within Stray Kids has always extended beyond the choreographic: he has contributed to songwriting, directed music video concepts, and built a parallel visual arts practice that has exhibited in galleries.
The brand collaborations that now orbit him are a testament to that dimension of his identity. He has served as ambassador for Versace and Cartier. He has contributed to tracks with Troye Sivan and d4vd. Each collaboration reads less like a conventional endorsement and more like a creative alignment — brands and artists choosing each other because their visions genuinely converge.
Paul Marciano, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Guess?, Inc., articulated exactly that when the partnership was announced: “Beyond performance, Hyunjin is a creative force spanning music, dance, and visual art. His sense of style, confidence, and global influence make Hyunjin an amazing addition to the GUESS Family.” Nicolai Marciano, Chief New Business Development Officer, echoed the sentiment, describing Hyunjin as embodying “a new generation of expression” — the generation that GUESS needs to speak to if it’s to remain culturally vital across the next decade.
The Crowd as Co-Author
The June 4 pop-up event would not be complete as a story without acknowledging the STAYs.
They are the invisible architecture of everything Hyunjin touches publicly — the army that transforms a retail activation into a cultural event, that crashes trending charts before the doors even open, that turns a billboard above a Melrose storefront into a pilgrimage site.
Hundreds of fans arrived from across the United States and beyond, some having camped overnight, queuing down San Vicente by early morning.
Inside the flagship, an exclusive denim laser customization service was available — tactile, personal, something you could carry home as a document of presence.
A signing wall served as both a live moment during Hyunjin’s visit and a lasting fan touchpoint, long after he’d departed.
Social media, predictably, erupted. Fan videos, professional press coverage, local outlet streams — the event trended heavily across the United States and globally.
But what the numbers don’t capture is the texture of it: the way one artist, standing on a LA sidewalk in a denim overshirt and jeans, could make an entire crowd feel seen.
“He makes denim feel like a statement — not about a brand, but about a generation that refuses to separate where it’s from and where it’s going.”
— Sure Korea Editorial Team
A Return to Roots — And a New Direction
For GUESS, the Melrose flagship itself is a symbolic act. The brand was born in California, built its mythology here, and this reopening — set against a backdrop of strategic global expansion to Tokyo, Amsterdam, and Berlin — is both homecoming and launch signal. Choosing Hyunjin as the person to anchor this moment was not arbitrary. It was a statement about what American cultural heritage means in an era when the most compelling interpreters of that heritage may well come from Seoul.
That is the quiet revolution embedded in this collaboration. K-pop idols have long appeared in fashion campaigns; that territory is familiar. But an artist being positioned as the primary, global, first-ever face of both a fashion brand and its denim sub-label — shaping campaigns, embodying the ethos, standing at the center of its cultural story — that is different. Hyunjin is not decorating the GUESS narrative. He is rewriting it.
The Chapter Opens
here’s a word Hyunjin used when asked about this collaboration: chapter. It’s a word that suggests beginnings more than completions, that implies ongoing narrative rather than finite event. And in the context of what K-pop has done to fashion — and what fashion is now doing to K-pop — it’s the right word entirely.
When the crowds dispersed from Melrose Avenue on the evening of June 4, the billboard above the GUESS Jeans flagship still glowed. Hyunjin’s face, calm and unhurried, denim open at the collar, looking just past the camera. Not performing. Just present. Already rewriting what this corner of Los Angeles means to a generation that watches everything and forgets nothing.
This is the next chapter of denim. And it looks like him
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Credits & Rights
Sure Magazine & Photographs
© 2026 Sure Magazine / Sure Korea. All rights reserved. Photography © 2026 Jesal Parshotam and Miles Diggs. All photographic content used with permission. Brand imagery and campaign materials © 2026 Guess?, Inc. / GUESS Jeans. Artist images used with authorisation of JYP Entertainment. This article and all associated media are protected under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means — including photocopying, recording, or electronic methods — without prior written permission from the publisher. For licensing and reprint enquiries: rights@suremagazine.com
Publication
Sure Magazine (Sure Korea)
Issue: June 2026
@suremagazine
Editor of the original Article
Sure Korea Editorial Team
Sure Magazine
Artist
Hyunjin (Hwang Hyunjin)
Member of Stray Kids
@realstraykids
Global Brand Ambassador — GUESS & GUESS Jeans
This article is published by
Kpoppie Magazine
Velocity Entertainment Inc. Limited
Japan / New Zealand
Photography
Jesal Parshotam
@viewsbyjesal
Miles Diggs @diggzy
Brand
GUESS / GUESS Jeans
@guess
CEO: Paul Marciano
Chief NBD: Nicolai Marciano
Management / Label
JYP Entertainment
Event Location
GUESS Jeans Melrose Flagship
Melrose Avenue & San Vicente Blvd
West Hollywood, California
June 4, 2026