Korea one-o'-one: Shopping for clothes in Korea

Hey guys!

This post has been on my to-do list for an embarrassingly long period so it's about the time I finish and published it. This is something pretty basic yet something a lot of people are curious about; Shopping for clothes in Korea. After living in Korea for almost 2 years here it is, your little shopping guide to shopping clothes in Seoul.

WHERE? 

Obviously there is plenty of places where you should head if you're looking for clothes but the most popular areas include, Hongdae, Idae, Myeongdong, Dongdaemun, Gangnam & Sinsa Garosu-gil. From expensive brand clothes to cheaper than a cup of coffee - type of road shops - there's something for everyone. 


HONGDAE - If you're into that hip hop / street fashion, Hongdae is where you should head. Hongdae has lots of tiny and relatively cheap stores that offer a wide variety of street fashion, shoes and accessories. You can also find the typical H&M & Forever21 from there as well. 

IDAE - Idae is an area with a very appreciated women's university right in the middle of it. So needless to say the area is designed to appeal for university girls. The tiny streets are lined with makeup stores and cheap shops for pretty and very cheap girly blouses, skirts, and high heels - a dream come true if you're a very girly girl. And even if you're not head over heels for lace and pink things it also has a variety of less princess-y clothes for those who like more edgy clothing (As myself). 

MYEONGDONG - Myeongdong is probably the most touristy place you can find from Seoul. But it also offers amazing shopping opportunities. It is probably my favorite go-to place when it comes to clothes shopping. It has lots of those cheap little boutiques but also big names like Adidas, H&M, Nike, Forever 21, Lotte department store, SPAO and MIXXO. Plus right outside Myeongdong there's a Migliore shopping center that has 2 or 3 floors full or little clothing stores. No matter what style of clothes you're looking for, you can't go wrong with Myeongdong. 

DONGDAEMUN - Dongdaemun is known for its two tall market type of shopping centers - 'Migliore' & 'Hello apm' which have more than 11 floors of cheap clothes, accessories and shoes waiting for you to bargain the prices even lower, and 'DOOTA' which is another shopping center but concentrates more on brand and luxury stores. Dongdaemun doesn't offer a big variety of clothing because market type of malls such as Hello apm and Migliore usually mostly offer the same clothes in every floor by different sellers who buy them from a wholesale market of some kind. But if you're in the mood for cheap, very Korean-style clothing OR looking for brand names Dongdaemun is a place that offers all that within 3 big malls all located next to each other. 

GANGNAM & SINSA, GAROSU-GIL -  When people mention shopping in Gangnam we automatically think of brand clothing and luxury names such as Louis Vuitton, MCM, A LAND, JOYRICH, Giorgio Armani... And usually that's very accurate. You can find all those from Gangnam and Sinsa and many people head there exactly for those stores. But Gangnam station at line 2 also has a huge underground shopping mall with cheap clothes that offer a nice balance to the expensive boutiques all around the stylish area. And if you head to Sinsa, garosu-gil you will also find relatively cheaper vintage stores and clothing and accessories - so Gangnam is not all about high fashion. COEX department store is also located in Gangnam and offers a wide variety of clothing from basics like ZARA to more expensive brands. 

HOW MUCH?

Like everywhere, also in Korea clothes can be really expensive. When shopping in those roadside shops a rule of thumb would be to never buy what you see first; a store around the corner might be selling the same thing for a lot cheaper price ! However these stores are already quite cheap; prices usually starting from 10 bucks. Like it is completely normal to walk to a roadside store and find t-shirts for 5 bucks and skirts for 10.  Thicker winter jackets start from like 50 000 won which is very cheap, at least on my scale. Keep in mind that the quality is also not the best and they don't tend to stay wearable for many years. Or even months, sometimes. A bigger clothing store chains like ZARA or H&M, I have realized, are quite expensive here in Korea. E.g a dress that costs 20 in Finland can cost over 30 bucks in Korea. So I try to avoid shopping in those stores. 

SIZES?

Many things in Korea are onesize or free sized. Especially when shopping in those smaller boutiques or market places in Idae, Hongdae or Dongdaemun, there's usually no size tags at all unless you're shopping for jeans or something. Dresses, shirts, skirts et cetera are usually, if not always, one size. So this does cause some problems sometimes for us not-tiny-160cm-asians. But I am definitely not the shortest (172cm) and smallest girl and I have yet to encounter a shirt that wouldn't have fitted me so I wouldn't worry about that too much. Jeans I don't even try buying from the roadside shops because they are tiny and very short. But from H&M and forever 21 etc I have no problems finding bottoms as well. If you're a short girl I'm sure you could find jeans from roadside shops as well. What might cause some problems though is fitting your girls on the chest area into some of the blouses if you have been particularly blessed on that part of your body, hahah! 

BARGAINING?

Bargaining used to be very common but I think it is slowly losing its importance ? Obviously you can't bargain when in regular stores but in places like Migliore or Helloapm bargaining is very important. When you ask for the price the seller most likely will try to overprice the product. Since it is a market place they pretty much decide the prices themselves and especially us foreigners seem an easy target to charge some extra. So never, EVER go "sure" and pay up. No. That's the most rookie mistake you could absolutely do. What I always so is I go "aahh..that's quite a lot..I'm gonna think about it and walk around a bit" and that usually does the trick and the sellers go "well I mean I can take off 5 dollars JUST FOR YOU very exclusive only for you!" If you wanna take your bargaining to the next level, after they tell you the new price try to go even lower like one or two dollars just for the heck of it. That should do it. Or you can be extra difficult and say you're gonna walk around a bit and check if you can find it for even cheaper. Most probably you will. Another trick that works quite well is telling the seller you saw this same item for a cheaper price somewhere else in the market so you're just gonna go buy it from there.

So there you go I hope this helped and will help some of you wondering about clothes shopping and where to do it here in Seoul ! If you have any further questions leave a comment down below and I will answer the best I can.

xx,

Julia