[Weekender] How Seongsu, once an industrial zone, has become ‘Seoul’s Brooklyn’

Fashionable brands, cool vibe lure young adults, tourists

Dior's boutique in Seongsu-dong, eastern Seoul (Dior)

The streets around Seongsu Station in Seongdong-gu, eastern Seoul, have recently become a popular destination for young adults and foreign tourists, especially those interested in fashion and beauty products.

The increasing popularity in this area is due to the growing number of fashion brand select shops, along with beauty and drugstores, strategically located along the street to target the rising number of visitors -- creating a virtuous cycle that continues to boost its reputation.

On Sept. 13, Musinsa, the leading online fashion platform in Korea, opened its expansive fashion select shop, Musinsa Store Seongsu @DaerimChanggo, in the Seongsu neighborhood. This single-story retail location, spanning 704 square meters, features over 100 clothing, sneaker and accessory brands. Notably, 85 percent of those fashion brands -- excluding footwear lines -- are domestic. Many such brands are in vogue among teens and young adults who are highly responsive to rapidly changing fashion trends.

"The brands available at Musinsa’s Seongsu store feel more unique to me compared to other shopping districts like Myeong-dong, where well-known brands like Nike and New Balance, as well as fast fashion brands, are more common. For those who are really into fashion, like me, this place is a particularly attractive option,” said Anug Hodel, a 23-year-old product manager from the Netherlands traveling in Korea.

Hodel added that she discovered the store through posts from influencers she follows on Instagram and decided to visit despite the rainy weather, as select shops and pop-up stores like those in Seongsu are rare in the Netherlands.

Alongside the Musinsa Seongsu store, around 40 select shops, both independent and company-operated, are located within the 1.6-kilometer-by-600-meter area of the Seongsu Station neighborhood. Tapping into the growing buzz, French luxury brand Christian Dior opened a boutique there in 2022. Pop-up stores run by global brands like Diptyque, Yves Saint Laurent, Marie Claire and Chanel, as well as small domestic labels, have since dominated the street.

Industry insiders explain that Seongsu-dong's evolution can largely be attributed to its competitive advantage in offering lower rent prices compared to shopping districts like Myeong-dong and Gangnam.

"It wasn’t easy to see Seongsu-dong as a bustling area just over a decade ago. The lower rent prices meant it was mostly home to handmade shoe, leather and auto parts factories,” said an industry official who wished to be unnamed.

“However, due to its proximity to Gangnam, in recent years there has been an effort to leverage these lower rents to attract affluent consumers from nearby upscale shopping districts by opening pop-up stores for small but distinctive brands. As visitor numbers grew, more companies started flocking to the area,” the official added. Seongsu Station is located about 11 kilometers from Gangnam Station, both on Line No. 2, with 11 stops between them, taking around 22 minutes.

Foreign visitors wearing hanbok try sample cosmetics at CJ Olive Young's Seongsu branch. (CJ Olive Young)

In the meantime, Seongsu-dong has also recently gained recognition not only as a fashion hub, but also as a strategic destination for beauty brands.

Musinsa, as part of its strategy to expand into the cosmetics business, also plans to open an offline beauty store in the area next year, following the success of its own cosmetics pop-up store under the Musinsa Beauty brand in early September. Just a few weeks prior, CJ Olive Young purchased the co-naming rights to Seongsu Station for 1 billion won ($750,000), allowing their brand name to appear in parentheses after the station name.

In 2023, CJ Olive Young, the leading health and beauty retailer, experienced an eightfold increase in the number of foreign visitors and a tenfold rise in sales from foreign customers across its five branches in Seongsu-dong. It also plans to open its largest store in the country -- a five-story building -- later this year to solidify its presence as a dominant player in Seongsu-dong's beauty market.

“While it’s difficult to predict the long-term outlook for the area, the continued influx of visitors seeking not only fashion, but also beauty products that reflect the latest trends is noteworthy,” another industry official said. “In particular, given the rising global popularity of K-beauty, more beauty stores and pop-ups are expected to target both 20- and 30-somethings, as well as foreign tourists, on the Seongsu streets.”

Throughout the rest of September and October, the Seongsu-dong streets will also welcome new pop-up stores from beauty brands, including vegan cosmetics brand Dinto, Amorepacific's Iope and emerging domestic names like Isoi and Touch in Sol.

According to government data, the Seongsu Station neighborhood attracted more than 36 million visitors in 2023. During the same period, Seongsu Station saw an average daily footfall of 78,018, reflecting a 14 percent increase from 67,849 the previous year. In the first half of this year, the number of foreign visitors to Seongsu-dong increased more than fourfold on-year to 371,596 from 75,669.

Visitors to Seongsu street walk with umbrellas past the front of Musinsa Store Seongsu @DaerimChanggo on Sept. 20.(Hwang Joo-young/The Korea Herald)

By Hwang Joo-young(flylikekite@heraldcorp.com)