On March 20, BTS returned with their fifth studio album, “ARIRANG,” bringing an absence of three years and nine months to an end. The album’s message about the group’s Korean roots carries over into 2026 BTS X MU:DS, their merchandise line produced in collaboration with MU:DS, the brand of the National Museum of Korea Cultural Foundation. The merch puts a modern spin on decorative motifs from the Divine Bell of King Seongdeok, the bell featured in “No. 29,” the album’s sixth track. It’s available now on Weverse Shop and at BTS POP-UP: ARIRANG, now open for fans to visit at The Heritage at Shinsegae Department Store’s main branch and at HYBE headquarters in Yongsan. We spoke with Kil Seonah from HYBE IPX’s Merch Business 4 Part and Seo Jiyoung from the Spatial Design Part about how they brought that Korean aesthetic to life for ARMY around the world.

Clockwise from top-left: shoulder bag, layered skirt, card holder, hairpin, hair clip

The official merch for BTS’s fifth studio album, “ARIRANG,” includes five items made in collaboration with MU:DS. This is actually the second collaboration, following 2024 DALMAJUNG BTS X MU:DS, and MU:DS has had a positive response for making merchandise that keeps traditional Korean design and its significance at its core. Can you walk us through what went into this latest collaboration?
Kil Seonah (HYBE IPX Merch Business 4 Part): “ARIRANG” is about BTS’s identity, their roots, and their beginnings. Korean culture is inseparable from any conversation about BTS, so this collaboration felt like a meaningful way to spread awareness of that culture and spirit more widely. We wanted Korean beauty to be something beyond the realm of tradition and be something fans could easily come in contact with in their everyday lives. With that in mind, we built the line around fashion pieces that fans could actually wear and get use out of day to day.

From left: Divine Bell of King Seongdeok, bicheonsang

The 2026 BTS X MU:DS merch draws on the decorative patterns of the Divine Bell of King Seongdeok, a Silla-era bell widely known as the Emille Bell. What led you to use it as a design motif, and what were the most important considerations along the way?
Kil Seonah (HYBE IPX Merch Business 4 Part): The idea came from the sound of the Bell of King Seongdeok being used on the “ARIRANG” track “No. 29.” It’s an extraordinary piece of heritage—its intricate patterns and elegant form have moved people for over a thousand years, and they still do. That connects directly to what BTS has said they want—to make music that stays with people for a long time, the way “Arirang” has. We wanted to reinterpret the beauty of the patterns engraved on the bell with a contemporary sensibility in a way that fans could experience in an everyday way.

The new merch uses a range of techniques and materials across the line. The card holder features the bell’s flying bicheonsang rendered in raised relief, while the hair clip has it in sunken relief instead. The hair clip and hairpin are made of metal, while the shoulder bag and layered skirt use sheer fabric. What was the reason behind wanting to have that kind of variety?
Kil Seonah (HYBE IPX Merch Business 4 Part): We wanted to show how gracefully traditional patterns can be adapted to different materials. Since each material comes with its own unique feel, we used raised and sunken relief to let the bell’s ornamentation shine through in the way that best suits each piece. For the hairpin, we went with metal to give them a look that’s classic and refined. And for the shoulder bag and layered skirt, we wanted the fabric to evoke images of hanbok, the traditional Korean attire.

2026 BTS X MU:DS goods are available on Weverse Shop as well as at BTS POP-UP: ARIRANG, running from March 20 to April 12. What kind of experience did you want to craft for fans at the physical pop-up locations happening on the ground floor of HYBE’s headquarters in Yongsan and at The Heritage at Shinsegae Department Store’s main branch?
Seo Jiyoung (HYBE IPX Spatial Design Part): BTS POP-UP: ARIRANG is built around the group’s fifth studio album. It was designed to convey the album’s message more fully and give fans a genuine sense of who BTS is and how authentic they are. There are locations at both HYBE headquarters and The Heritage running in tandem, providing expanded opportunities for fans to connect with the group’s message, and we also made sure the experience feels consistent for them between venues. HYBE’s Yongsan HQ has always been somewhere fans like to visit, but with this pop-up we wanted to give them something more than just a building to visit—it’s a chance to engage more widely with the story of the group and their momentum.

BTS POP-UP: ARIRANG feels significant in the way it carries the album’s message consistently through the merch and then extends it into the store experience. With that in mind, what sort of visual identity did you want the pop-up space to have, and what aspects of the layout did you focus on most for the sake of the fan experience?
Seo Jiyoung (HYBE IPX Spatial Design Part): The space is laid out as two overlapping circles, with “ARIRANG” itself at the center where it sits as the source—representing the resonance, reverberation, and emergence of what BTS wants to convey through the album. With some of the merch having been made in collaboration with MU:DS, we also wanted the products and the space to feel like one connected experience rather than separate things, so we wove a distinctly Korean aesthetic consistently throughout the visual identity and worked to express the composition of the album in an in-depth way. We used layers of materials in off-white and each with their own degree of translucency and texture, ranging from changhoji [traditional window paper] to stone, to reinterpret and express the Koreanness at the heart of the album.

BTS simultaneously conveys both their identity as Koreans and the universal values they possess as global artists through the music of “ARIRANG.” That bridging of traditional Korean culture, fashion, and K-pop all together makes the 2026 BTS X MU:DS collaboration and BTS POP-UP: ARIRANG all the more meaningful. With all of that in mind, what do you hope fans take away from the collaboration and the pop-up?
Kil Seonah (HYBE IPX Merch Business 4 Part): What sticks with me is how BTS was directly involved in pitching ideas not just for the MU:DS pieces but for the whole line, weighing in on everything from design to materials. It was a meaningful experience—one where we could capture what BTS is into and what they want to say to their fans, not just through the album but through all the products. I hope the collaborative pieces become a chance for fans to experience Korean beauty up close in their day-to-day lives. And hopefully it means they get to experience the album and its deep ties to BTS’s identity not just through the music but in a variety of different ways.
Seo Jiyoung (HYBE IPX Spatial Design Part): With BTS POP-UP: ARIRANG, we wanted to set up an experience where the album, the merch, the space, and the other content all connect organically into one. In designing the space, we put a particular amount of thought into what fans were hoping to find there. Alongside physical objects rooted in the message behind the album, we developed an app where fans can check out pictures of and messages from BTS, so the content experience extends beyond the space itself. We hope fans come away having done more than just popping in to shop and having personally experienced the story and message behind the album more deeply.