Petite but with enough energy to fill an entire room, Young Song Martin walks in wearing an elegant mauve-pink linen dress, and a huge smile.

Already a household name among the high society of Los Angeles and a budding celebrity across the United States, this native Korean in her late 40s looks as if she is out to conquer the world.

Prepared in the banquet room at the wedding center of Lotte Hotel Seoul is a beautifully decorated set of table and chairs, with different shades of pink flowers, ribbons and pearls along with candles, delicate cutlery and glasses sprawled over the giant table.

 
But what grabs the eyes the most is what Young Song Martin has made her name for. The drape of the table cloth and the back of the chairs are covered in snow white fluffy feathers, and some in striking petal-pink bows that simply melt the heart.

Since 2001, Martin has been making headlines for her exquisite taste, making extremely clever inroads into the niche market of weddings, events and banquets: by styling tables and chairs.

"Much more could be done with the most important and abundant elements in the room - tables and chairs," Martin explained on Monday, describing how she turned from a successful fashion designer to what you may call a table-set stylist.

That job description, however, is surely an understatement.

"You know what? I'll take the credit for it," Martin joyously nods to the notion that she indeed created the very trend of decorating the tablecloth or introducing the so-called "haute couture linen."

Her company, Wildflower Linen, has made a conceptual change in the industry of wedding receptions, banquets, events and more by offering a tailored and high-end styling of tabletops, table linen and chair covers. Her company not only just "covers the chairs" but offer a total styling service of the tables.

Martin's strategy indeed hit the mark in the already-burgeoned market of the United States that was still void of stylish table and chair settings to match the demands of customers.

How she came about becoming - as her food critic husband Richard Martin once teased - "chair cover lady" was quite by accident.

After moving to the United States in 1978 with her sister as a student, Martin took the traditional steps of becoming a fashion designer by studying at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in California, and working for various labels before launching her own line.

Her fashion line did well, selling her creations at such venues as Fred Segal, Macys, Bloomingdales and more.

But soon she got tired of the tedious purchasing trend of the fashion industry.

"I thought it was time to get out of here (fashion industry) ... and besides in fashion one day you are in and one day you are out ... not to mention how my major clients were getting older," she said.

Feeling frustrated over what she described as a "bottom-line driven" market of fashion, Martin shifted her market a little to create weekend resort wear, which also did well in business.

While she was contemplating getting out of the business altogether, Martin was invited to showcase her collection at a show in Las Vegas. She decorated her booth with her now-signature haute couture linen, which drew even wider popularity than her costly fashion line. One woman even asked her if she could decorate the tables and chairs for her daughter's wedding.

And it was then she had the revelation of linking chair covers and weddings as the starting point of her business.

But it was not until she pondered more, after hosting smaller events and creating samples that she decided to aim the entire market of events and banquets, thereby making her business even more lucrative.

Now her company has showrooms in such cities as New York and San Francisco, as well as representatives in Dallas, San Diego and Atlanta, creating revenues in tens of millions of dollars.

She has also arranged tables for such renowned events as the Grammy Awards pre-party, Golden Globe Awards and after party for the Academy Awards. Her products of diverse linen products are also produced from a plant in California and sold throughout the world.

Martin is now putting her magic touches to her home country upon a proposal from Lotte Hotel to work together at bringing a new culture to weddings here, which remain extraneous and impersonal.

"Here, it looks like the wedding is not a celebration but an obligation," Martin said, adding that the traditional weddings of Korea once held so much festivity.

"I am beyond excited (about coming to Korea) and changing back the culture to what it was."

Together with Lotte Hotel, Martin's works will be available for brides looking for that special celebration, by offering three different concepts each season.

"I am always inspired by colors. Colors are always different. There is no such thing as an ugly thing in the world. Everything in the world is beautiful if it's placed right," she said. -The Korean Herald/ANN