"Fashion King" revolves around the world of fashion designers, from start-ups in the Dongdaemun area of Seoul onto world class designers.  ...  Young-Gul (Yoo Ah-In) makes imitation designer clothes at a small factory and sells them at Dongdaemun Market. He is in bad financial shape.  Since Ga-Young's (Shin Se-Kyung) parents died in an accident, she is raised by Jo Soon-Hee (Jang Mi-Hie), owner and designer at Boutique Jo, which Ga-Young's parents and Jo Soon-Hee started together. Ga-Young lives and works at Boutique Jo. Ga-Young has talent as a designer. While Ga-Young works under Jo Soon-Hee, she applies to a famous design school in New York. Jo Soon-Hee then hides her acceptance letter from her and eventually kicks Ga-Young out for setting a fire at Boutique Jo, which Ga-Young had nothing to do with. Ga-Young has no place to go and spots a help wanted ad. Ga-Young goes to a small sewing factory, which Young-Gul runs, and gets a job there.  Due to Young-Gul's debts, he goes to Jae-Hyuk's (Lee Je-Hoon) office to borrow money. Young-Gul and Jae-Hyuk graduated from the same high school, but they hardly know each other. Jae-Hyuk is the son of a major clothing company. Young-Gul is humiliated by Jae-Hyuk at his office .  When Ga-Young sees an acceptance email from the design school in New York, Young-Gul is also there. That night, Young-Gul gives her money to buy a plane ticket to New York. Finally, Ga-Young gets to go to New York, but when she gets there, the receptionist at the school tells Ga-Young that the school sent her a rejection letter. Ga-Young is dumbfounded.  Meanwhile, Jae-Hyuk is sent to New York to hone his skills in scouting for the latest trends in fashion.  Young-Gul sleeps with a woman, but it turns out she is the girlfriend of a loan shark. Young-Gul is then chased by the loan shark's thugs. To avoid the thugs, Young-Gul hops on a deep-sea fishing boat.