Start Your Engines:
Peaches is Reigniting Car Culture

Yet this type of cultural infatuation with cars never really existed in Korea—until recently. As with the region’s music and fashion communities, there is now a fast-rising cultural phenomenon surrounding car culture in Korea. And at the forefront of that movement is Peaches, the Seoul-based production company, creative collective, and group of “car styling” experts, building a much needed cultural community for a new generation of tech and fashion-savvy drivers.

The first automobile company in South Korea was established in 1962, just nine years after a devastating civil war that split Korea in two. Kyeongseong Precision Industry—Kia—imported and assembled licensed parts in partnership with Mazda. It wasn’t until 1975 that the first fully Korean-built car came to be: The Hyundai Pony. While by global market share, South Korea now stands as one of the top automotive manufacturers in the world (alongside Japan, Germany, and the United States), the country got a late start compared to industry competitors, who began making cars as early as the 1800s. Perhaps as a result of its late manufacturing start, the country’s car subculture has been a bit slow to form as well—compared to its neighbor Japan, the land of colorfully modified Hondas and home of the Drift King (see: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift), there’s not much to say about Korea’s car culture.

But Peaches aims to change that. Founded in 2017 and operated between Seoul and LA, the eight-member team consists of a music video director, photographer, former rapper/DJ, fashion designer, illustrator, and a psychology author-turned-restaurateur. Together, the eclectic group has “car styled” for K-pop music videos, Nike commercials, and Samsung mobile games. They do everything from “car styling”—conceptualizing and modifying the car itself—to directing vehicles to “pose” for $50k Hasselblad equipment. Heavy hitters like Porsche and BMW have asked Peaches to lend their hand in customizing cars and creative directing campaigns to appeal to a younger fan base. Where the world of “car styling” may feel relatively niche, among auto fiends Peaches is already a household name. On the streets of LA and Tokyo—the two car capitals of the world—it’s easy to spot the italicized Peaches. logo plastered on car bumpers while stuck in traffic at any time of day.

“We are known in our own circles,” says Intaek Ryo, the group’s founder. “But we want our love of cars to reach a younger, wider audience. We want car culture to become more approachable for everyone.” Peaches’ slogan, “One Universe,” is a pledge to bring together separate factions among divided car enthusiasts. “If you look into car culture, it’s broken into smaller subcultures like drifting, drag racing, supercars, vintage cars, mini cars, Japanese cars, European cars, et cetera,” Ryo explains. “Fans of each of these cultures usually hate mixing together. Our goal is to bring these different groups in one place.”

At Ryo’s beckoning on social media, hundreds of fans will assemble in a parking lot by Seoul’s Han River as early as six in the morning, in their most precious four-wheeled possessions. Using social media and meet-up events, Peaches aims to revive a short-lived 2000s car craze in Korea. “Korea actually had a boom in car subculture in the early 2000s,” reminisces Jae Huh, Peaches’ newly appointed creative director. “Foreign cars from the 70s and 80s were really popular back then, and we would have a lot of meet-ups and go drag racing.” To this, Huh credits Korea’s lack of government tariffs and regulations at the time, which allowed easy financing and let racers slide without getting in trouble. As traffic regulations began to tighten over the years, racers and tuners were forced to operate underground, which put a halt on Korea’s budding custom car industry.

“There are already a lot of challenges to owning a car in Korea, because of high import taxes and gas prices,” Ryo says. Indeed, South Korean regulations on driving and modifying vehicles are among the strictest in the world. It’s illegal to even change the headlights without state approval there, a common practice in other countries. Until March of this year, Koreans weren’t even allowed to decorate their wheel caps. “There’s a social rule that you shouldn’t stand out. If there’s something unusual about your car, your neighbor or anyone on the street that sees you will be the first to report you to the police.”

This stigma on custom cars is what motivates Peaches the most. “The generation that loved cars in the early 2000s are the ones who are still keeping the culture going in Korea,” Ryo says. “But they have grown older, and also carry this image of being lawbreaking ‘thugs.’ We need to change this, and make our culture relevant again, especially to the youth. We want to tell people that there’s nothing wrong with expressing yourself with your car. Your car can show who you are, just like your clothes.”

“It’s true that cars might have a higher-priced unit than clothing or shoes,” Huh says. But one’s love of cars is formed over a much longer period of time—the dream starting as a child for some—so the emotional connection is much deeper. And you don’t even necessarily need to own a car to be part of and excited about this culture.”

Ryo’s is one such love story, beginning in high school with his first Hyundai Santa Fe. After a BMW M4 sparked his interest in tuning a few years later, he went all in and spent everything he made in his restaurant business on cars. In the last five years, the 31-year-old has owned close to 40 different vehicles, from a Porsche 993 2 and BMW 1M Coupe to a Lamborghini Huracan EVO Spyder. “I would have three to four cars at a time, and swap them out constantly,” he says.

Since establishing Peaches, Ryo has come full circle with Hyundai. He recently led a collaboration with Hyundai N, the automaker’s high performance division, to create and sell a co-branded wheel cap with a custom-scripted decal. “Last fall, Hyundai released a series of campaign videos that opens with our logo, before theirs,” Ryo beams as he recalls. “That’s insane for a Korean car company. They’re usually so conservative and old-fashioned. The market is finally opening its eyes to a fresher, more sophisticated audience,” he says. Supercar drivers are younger than ever now, not only in age but also in attitude. Supercars, vintage cars, and custom cars are not just for old, wealthy men anymore.”

This year, Peaches was supposed to collaborate with Shell on a pop-up gas station in LA’s Koreatown, until the pandemic halted those plans. But there is still much the collective has planned for the coming year. Eventually, they want to operate their own, full-fledged apparel brand for drivers. “There is no Supreme or Stüssy for cars yet. Every iconic street brand is based on skate or surf culture, but not car culture,” says Ryo. “We have the thirst for our culture to be represented more.” There’s also Peaches D8NE, a physical garage space and studio gallery they are set to open in Seoul in early 2021. It is already in the works to host an exhibition with legendary hip hop photographer, Chi Modu, featuring his extensive portraiture of rappers with their iconic cars—both souped-up and classic. “And we’ve only begun to scratch the surface,” Ryo promises.

Elaine YJ Lee is a writer based in New York. Her work has appeared on i-D, VICE, Refinery29, Complex, Highsnobiety, HYPEBEAST, Atmos, office Magazine and more.