That Time BLINK Thought BLACKPINK’s Jennie Secretly Owned A Successful Clothing Brand
Could BLACKPINK‘s Jennie secretly be the owner of popular clothing brand Nieeh? That’s what BLINK thought for the longest time.
Nieeh is a Korean brand selling a range of tops, bottoms, dresses, outerwear, homewear, accessories, and lifestyle items. All items are available at mid-ranged prices with international shipping.
The mysterious brand’s website reveals it was founded in 2020 “to share positive energy from something formless throughout [its] products“. However, none of Nieeh’s official platforms say anything about who owns the brand. Despite that, fans have been speculating that Jennie could be involved for quite some time.
When Jennie’s Jentle Home pop-up store launched, she was spotted there wearing a Nieeh “Cloudy Day” hoodie. While the hoodie isn’t cheap at ₩152,000 KRW (about $106 USD), it’s a lot more modestly priced than many of Jennie’s designer pieces.
She went on to wear the hoodie on multiple occasions, and she’s also been seen with other Nieeh pieces—like their ₩93,000 KRW (about $65.10 USD) envelope bag.
And Jennie isn’t the only Nieeh fan in K-Pop. Numerous idols have been seen supporting the brand, and almost all of them are known to be close friends of Jennie. Her fellow BLACKPINK members, Red Velvet‘s Yeri, and Jeon Somi are just a few stars who sported Nieeh.
Even Jennie’s staff (including makeup artists, nail artists, and photographers) have publicly shown off their Nieeh products on Instagram. Plus, the brand’s name seems to be a big clue: the last three letters of Jennie are the first three letters of Nieeh.
The brand’s name could also indicate that Jennie isn’t alone in owning Nieeh—if she is the owner at all. According to the Hangul spelling, Nieeh is pronounced “nee-hee“. “Hee”—which also happen to be the last three letters of Nieeh in reverse—may well come from former Melody Day‘s Chahee, a very close friend of Jennie’s.
Some of the photos posted on Chahee’s official Instagram account were also posted on Nieeh’s Instagram account.
All that said, the theory that Jennie and Chahee may be co-CEOs of Nieeh didn’t have much more evidence behind it—until one fateful post. Famous Korean model Irene Kim posted an Instagram story that may have spilled the beans on everything.
Irene took to her Instagram story to share a bag she was gifted from Nieeh’s upcoming collection. Along with the caption “so gooood“, she dropped a massive hint by adding, “Thank you @jennierubyjane“—Jennie’s official Instagram account.
[IG] Irene Kim instagram story update with Jennie — 210106
“so gooood 🤍 @nieeh_official
Thank you @jennierubyjane 😘”#BLACKPINK #JENNIE #블랙핑크 #제니 @BLACKPINK 블랙핑크 제니 인스타 pic.twitter.com/cwsAaHunQg— JENNIERAZZI (@jennierazzi) January 6, 2021
Unsurprisingly, eagle-eyed fans quickly picked up on Irene’s caption, which indicated that Jennie is the one who sent her the bag. Since the bag collection is new, the only way Jennie could have sent one to Irene is if she’s affiliated with Nieeh herself.
Then, Irene made everyone even more suspicious by deleting the Instagram story altogether. She replaced it with a new image of her Nieeh bag, simply captioned with a white heart emoji.
So, while nothing was been confirmed back then, it looked more and more likely that Jennie was a co-owner of Nieeh. Back in a 2019 interview with Vogue Korea, Jennie revealed that if she ever started her own fashion line, she wanted to make clothes that were “comfortable” rather than “fancy“. Looking at Nieeh’s warm sweaters, practical bags, and cozy homewear, it seems like she may have achieved her dream.
However, Jennie has since seemingly confirmed that she was simply supporting her best friend’s business, congratulationing Chahee on the opening of Nieeh’s pop up store back in May.
220504 제니 스토리 업데이트
So proud of her !
@ hichaheebye @ nieeh_official
5월5일부터 시작한데요 🖤#제니 #JENNIE #블랙핑크 #BLACKPINK @BLACKPINK pic.twitter.com/AmolC4oy8i— DC 제니 갤러리 (@JennieDCGallery) May 4, 2022
We love a supportive best friend!
