Following the global popularity of K-pop, K-dramas and K-food, get ready for another "K": K-fashion.
Alongside established Korean fashion houses like Songzio, Wooyoungmi, Juun.J and System, a new generation of local fashion labels is making waves globally, establishing Korea as a fashion hot spot, particularly for today’s style-savvy millennials and Generation Z.
Recognizing Korea’s dynamic and emerging fashion profile, a 2023 US News & World Report survey ranked the country 10th among the world's most fashionable nations.
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Seoul, the nation's capital and premier fashion hub, now asserts itself as more than just a runway for imported apparel.
The buzz surrounding Korean fashion is palpable at local retail temples like Lotte World Mall and The Hyundai Seoul, wooing particularly style-conscious younger generations.
Lotte World Mall, for instance, has recently started housing leading-edge domestic brands like Mardi Mercredi, Ader Error, Gentle Monster and Hatchingroom.
Reconsidering the line between streetwear and high fashion, Ader Error, founded in 2014, cemented its turf with a flagship store at Lotte World Mall in June last year. Housing Ader Error is strategic for Lotte, an official said, given that recently “the brand has become a must-visit place among young Hallyu fans from abroad.”
Also during June last year, another hot-selling brand, Mardi Mercredi, launched in the same mall. It quickly topped sales charts among contemporary brands in the mall, with over half of its sales coming from international visitors, mostly from Japan, China, Thailand and US, a mall official explained.
Building on this success, Mardi Mercredi recently opened a kids' apparel store across from the original shop in the mall in March.
In another part of the capital, The Hyundai Seoul provides a curated space for young fashionistas in its second basement level, called Creative Ground, where trendy labels like Matin Kim, Sie, Mischief and Coor take center stage.
According to the mall, sales of young-targeted fashion brands accounted for 13.9 percent of the mall’s total sales last year, doubling from 6.2 percent the previous year. It recorded an 891.7 percent jump in sales on-year from foreign nationals between January and November last year. Over 70 percent of these customers were in their 20s and 30s.
Furthermore, trendsetting districts in Seoul like Hannam-dong and Seongsu-dong are not to be overlooked, thriving with a dense concentration of local labels and independent boutiques.
Kim Min-tae, in his late 20s, recalled his recent visit to Ader Error's store in Seongsu-dong.
“The shop was crowded with tourists from Japan and China, even more so than locals,” he recalled. “It wasn’t like this when the store opened here four years ago.”
Cheong Min-sik, 29, a Korean national who is a graduate student in Illinois, shared with The Korea Herald that he visited Hannam-dong at the request of his Chinese girlfriend, who wanted a silver-colored bag from Korean brand Anoetic.
“I hadn't heard of this brand before, but my girlfriend said their bags are trending on a Chinese social media platform,” he said. "For her, the biggest selling points of K-brands are that they are fashionable and price-friendly."
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The Korean fashion scene has also grown beyond its home turf to meet demand elsewhere.
Starting on May 10 and running to July 28, Hyundai Department Store has held a series of pop-up stores at the Parco Department Store in Tokyo featuring various Korean brands like Noice, Marithe Francois Girbaud and Emis.
Despite its French roots, Marithe Francois Girbaud underwent a complete rebranding in Korea after a licensing deal for Asia with Korean fashion firm Layer in 2019. By blending its iconic heritage with a fresh, contemporary aesthetic, the brand has reemerged as a major force in Korean fashion.
Starting on May 7, Marithe’s retail space at Parco attracted roughly 500 Japanese consumers every morning for a week, a Hyundai Department Store official revealed.
Matin Kim shattered records with the highest visitor count ever recorded for a Korean brand pop-up store in Japan, drawing a swarm of over 3,000 customers on its opening day, May 24. Officials from Parco Department Store said that the turnout was "unprecedented," with lines longer than any they had ever seen before.
Having previously launched temporary retail stores in major Japanese cities such as Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, this marked the brand's fourth such event. Established in 2015, Matin Kim reported sales of over 70 billion won ($50.8 million) in the first half of this year, up by 65 percent from the same period last year.
But Korean brands seek to surpass mere pop-ups and expand with a sustained presence abroad to captivate an international clientele.
Korea's Layer is strategically targeting rebranded Marithe Francois Girbaud's overseas expansion, with plans to establish new stores in China, Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam, where demand for its clothing is notably high.
Matin Kim solidified exclusive partnership agreements in April with local entities to expand its business into Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan later this year. A brand official believes that this strategic move will set the stage for Matin Kim to gain recognition as a "global K-fashion brand."
In June, Mardi Mercredi expanded its retail network by opening a two-story store in Tokyo. In order to get inside the store on opening day, over 150 customers were put on a waiting list.
Unlike these up-and-coming Korean brands initially making strides into nearby Asian markets, where Korean culture has a significant following, more seasoned players are turning their gaze towards Europe.
In September last year, Korean label Wooyoungmi elevated its global presence by becoming the first Korean brand to open a flagship shop on the iconic Paris fashion street, Rue Saint-Honore. Its Parisian debut occurred over a decade ago with the establishment of its first flagship store in the Marais district in 2013.
In the heart of global fashion capital Paris, another Korean fashion house, Songzio, is slated to open an outlet in September. The brand is also planning to establish another flagship store as early as 2025 in New York.
In fact, the domestic fashion industry is posed to gain more momentum as it advances its fashion frontier.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government launched the Seoul Fashion Hub in Dongdaemun-gu in 2021, as part of efforts to elevate the nation's capital into a prominent global fashion hub.
The hub functions as a platform dedicated to cultivating fashion talent and fostering sustainable development within the domestic fashion sector. It consists of three specialized centers, focusing on design and production, training and business development.
