Fuelled by fashion, the Korean wave is taking the world by storm

Kwon Ji-yong surveys the crowd; tens of thousands of screaming fans stand before him, some waving self-made posters professing their love, many with dyed hair in tribute to their idol and still more aping his unique sartorial sense. The delirious crowd is expectant, hanging on his every word, giddy with joy at his every move. It's a situation the man widely known as G-Dragon experiences frequently back home, but this isn't South Korea, this is the third of three sell-out shows at Hong Kong's AsiaWorld-Expo.

Three years ago, Time magazine called K-pop South Korea's greatest export. At the time, the provocative statement could have been dismissed as eyebrow-raising clickbait, overlooking as it did the success of consumer giants Samsung, LG and Hyundai. However, as G-Dragon and his band, Big Bang, rattle through their hits and ever-so slick dance moves in front of 36,000 Hong Kong fans dressing like the stars, downloading the apps (each has a branded game with in-app purchases) and buying the merchandise, it's clear that K-pop has become a cultural and commercial juggernaut, with fashion increasingly at its core.

The garrulous Psy was the cultural Trojan horse, convincing the world in 2012 to dance Gangnam Style. But perhaps a better illustration of the global appeal of K-pop and Korean fashion lies in the growing popularity of KCON, a convention-type event held in the United States and Japan annually since 2012. This year's KCON, at which Girls Generation, Super Junior and Jun.K performed, attracted an audience of 90,000, including an incredible 58,000 people for the shows in Los Angeles' Staples Centre.

After the second world war, western Europe became obsessed with all things American: James Dean movies, rock 'n' roll, poodle skirts for girls and the greaser look for the boys, burgers and Coca-Cola. Historians describe that period as the "Coca-colonisation" of Europe and this soft-power influence, although not quite as blatant or reverential as it once was, is still very visible. Something similar to Coca-colonisation is occurring in East Asia. Whether it's at the cinema, in the supermarket or on television, it's almost impossible to avoid the style power of modern South Korea.

The thick end of this cultural wedge, the most visible, audible and obvious part, has been the music and the fashions that come with it. K-pop stars have swept the charts in Hong Kong and the mainland, and broken through to the West, fronting a so-called Korean wave or Hallyu (a term coined by the Chinese press) in Europe and North America. Korean designers are making a splash, too, in the traditional fashion capitals, with the Concept Korea show at the recent New York Fashion Week garnering a lot of attention for designers Lie Sang-bong, Lee Suk-tae and Lee Ji-yeon.

What began with K-pop moved on to a global obsession with Korean television and film. A fad quickly became a trend and then a movement. Korean superstars such as Kim Soo-hyun, star of the hit show My Love from the Star, stare down from giant billboards advertising everything from cars to mobile phones in Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and Tokyo. Inevitably, then came the fashion. Fans were keen to dress like their Korean idols.