Rare Raw takes Korean metal furniture to New York

Rare Raw takes Korean metal furniture to New York

최초입력 2025.07.17 11:33:23

(Kim Ho-young)

For Yang Yun-sun, founder and CEO of Rare Raw, metal furniture is more than a design choice — it’s part of her upbringing.
Raised in a home filled with steel tables, chairs, and shelves, Yang never had typical plywood furniture.
Her grandfather ran a hardware store in Seoul’s Euljiro district and her father owned a metalworking factory.
After studying abroad, she returned to Korea and launched her own metal furniture brand in 2014, operating from the second floor of her father’s factory in Nonhyeon-dong, southern Seoul.
Eleven years later, furniture designed by the hardware shop’s granddaughter is now sold in New York, Paris, and London. Her company handles the design, while her father’s factory produces the pieces.
On Wednesday, Yang and her father, Yang Kyung-chul, CEO of Simple Line, sat down for an interview with Maeil Business Newspaper at Rare Row’s showroom in Cheongdam-dong, southern Seoul.
Their signature product line, System 000, is well-known among interior design enthusiasts. The modular wall-mounted shelves can be adjusted in width and height and come in seven color variations, including yellow and brown.
Rather than simply taking over the family business, Yang launched her own company with a question in mind: “Wouldn’t a steel clothing rack used in big retail stores also work well at home?”
She said, “If the design is good, it should fit in any space. I always found it odd that only in Korea do we separate café chairs from kitchen tables.”
Designing home-use steel furniture came with challenges.
Commercial fixtures were too large and bulky for domestic spaces, prompting the need for thinner steel processing. Unlike store fixtures, furniture for homes had to meet higher aesthetic standards—tiny scratches often meant returns. Yang also moved away from cold whites and grays, introducing warmer color options.
At the time, her father’s company was already supplying shelving to over 160 Homeplus stores nationwide. Asked whether he worried about his daughter’s startup journey, Yang Kyung-chul said, “I had always dreamed of launching our own brand since starting Simple Line, so I believed in her.”
Today, 60 percent of Rare Raw’s sales come from online channels. On popular interior platform Ohouse, where over 160,000 users have bookmarked Rare Raw products, customers praise their durability and versatility. The brand also ships to Singapore and Dubai.
Rare Raw’s metal shelves can even be found in the Paris and London stores of French tableware brand Sabre. A well-known New York design store will install System 000 across an entire wall this September.
The father-daughter duo spoke at length about challenges in Korean manufacturing.
“Unless your business involves technologies like AI, it’s difficult for SMEs to qualify for government support,” said Yang Kyung-chul. “Wages keep rising, but an aging workforce is cutting productivity. Even with automation, managing the systems is tough. The government should help small manufacturers with digital transformation.”
Despite these hurdles, both remain optimistic about the future of metal furniture.
“Unlike MDF furniture that uses glue, metal poses no health risks,” he said. “It lasts longer and is recyclable. That’s the kind of furniture we want to focus on.”
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Rare Raw takes Korean metal furniture to New York

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