ILLIT's Wonhee sat Chanel in Paris. Fans call her a princess. The house has not made her an ambassador yet.
ILLIT's Wonhee attended Chanel's Spring/Summer 2027 show at the Grand Palais on October 5, her first Paris Chanel seat after the house's Métiers d'Art show in Seoul last May. Fans call her a Chanel princess. Chanel has not named her an ambassador.
Anika Rao
On October 5, ILLIT's Wonhee sat in the front row at Chanel's Spring/Summer 2027 show inside the Grand Palais. It was her first Chanel invitation in Paris, and she looked glad to be there.
Chanel styled her for Korean press in Cruise 2027 Look 59: a striped cotton jacket with a matching top and skirt, metal earrings from the same collection, a lambskin bag from the Spring/Summer 2027 pre-collection, and Chanel pumps. In May, for the house's Métiers d'Art show in Seoul, she had worn tweed. Paris chose lighter stripes instead. The bird lights around the Grand Palais made the whole night feel a little like a storybook, which may be why the nickname stuck so easily.
Fans and Korean fashion headlines have been calling her a Chanel princess since that Seoul outing. Clips from Paris carried the same language. It is a sweet label. It is not a job title.
Who she is, and how she got here
Lee Won-hee was born June 26, 2007, in Busan. She ranked first on Belift Lab's survival show R U Next?, then debuted with ILLIT in March 2024 on the mini album Super Real Me. Fashion found the group early. In February 2024, weeks before debut, all five members sat Acne Studios during Paris Fashion Week.
Chanel arrived later, and more carefully. On May 26 she attended the Métiers d'Art 2026 show at Centre Pompidou Hanwha in Seoul, on a photo-wall night that also included BLACKPINK's Jennie, who has been a Chanel ambassador since 2017. After Paris, Belift Lab said Wonhee was continuing a special relationship with the brand after the Seoul invite. The agency did not say ambassador. Chanel's credits did not either.
That is worth holding onto. Two invitations in under five months, the second to the house's main Paris ready-to-wear show, and a solo seat without her bandmates, still leave her short of the title. Houses often do this on purpose. They watch how someone photographs, how fans react, and whether the face still feels right after a busy music month. TXT's Soobin sat Dolce&Gabbana in Milan before the global ambassador announcement landed. The seat came first. The paperwork followed.
Inside the show
Matthieu Blazy's collection marked one year since he took over as Chanel's artistic director. It was the third chapter of his "La Conversation" series, built around birds, reworked tweed, and the idea that a woman becomes many versions of herself over a lifetime. Wonhee told The Korea Herald that the clothes got prettier the closer she looked, and that the floral accents were her favorites. Cortis's Keonho, another young HYBE guest, sat nearby. Dua Lipa, Nicole Kidman, and Pedro Pascal were in the wider front row.
Jennie remains the Korean pop face Chanel has formally claimed. Wonhee is earlier in the relationship: invited, styled, talked about, still waiting on the official word. Plenty of names on our Korean luxury ambassador ledger started the same way, as repeat show guests before the campaign portraits arrived.
Why the timing matters
ILLIT's fifth mini album, BREAK EVEN, arrives October 26, led by "You're Under Arrest." The group also has encore concerts at Inspire Arena on October 17 and 18. Paris photos in early October give both Belift and Chanel a useful stretch of attention before the music week takes over.
Our take is simple. Enjoy the nickname if you like it. Watch the calendar for something firmer: a third Chanel invite, or an actual ambassador announcement. Until then, Seoul and Paris are the record. If a campaign still follows after BREAK EVEN, we will know the house decided she was more than a charming guest.
