Foreign streetwear brands flock to rich districts in Seoul

Palace Skateboards will likely join other foreign streetwear brands such as Noah, Supreme and Stussy, which have made their debut in South Korea, targeting young Korean consumers known as early adopters given their growing interest in street style.

Palace is expected to launch its first store in the country in the upmarket district of Sinsa-dong, southern Seoul, near the outlets of Supreme and Stussy. Sinsa-dong is one of the country’s richest neighborhoods and home to many global luxury brands’ outlets in Seoul.

Supreme, a US clothing brand, opened its first Korean flagship store in August this year near the Stussy Seoul in the same district. Stussy Seoul is the brand’s first offline store in South Korea.

Noah, a US men's clothing brand, chose Seoul as the location of its fifth flagship store in the world.

Last month, it launched the Noah Cityhouse in the same neighborhood as that of Supreme and Stussy. Musinsa, a leading street fashion retailer in South Korea, brought the brand into the country.

Their unique fashion designs have created fandom among young consumers, who share their brand philosophy.

Their enthusiasm for new fashion styles has led them to snap up foreign brand products on the secondhand market or foreign shopping platforms, if they haven't been introduced yet in Korea.

Declining demand for suits during COVID-19 was also behind the rapid growth in the streetwear market, making South Korea one of the major markets for foreign brands after Japan in Asia.

Brendon Babenzien and Estelle Bailey-Babenzien, founders of Noah, described South Korea’s fashion market as vibrant with a strong interest in new brands among “fapy,” or fashion people, in a recent interview with The Korea Economic Daily.

Write to Ji-Yoon Yang at yang@hankyung.com
 

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.