When one of your favorite brands comes to stay in one of one of your favorite neighborhoods for a short time, it’s nice to pay them a visit. Right now, two of the world’s hottest fashion labels have appeared – for a limited time – in one of Seoul’s hippest areas.
One of the most exciting new trends in offline retailing over the last decade has been pop-up shopping. A pop-up store is a temporary outlet for one specific brand. When opening a pop-up store, it is important to choose a location that draws people. New York City’s trendy SoHo neighborhood has been home to some notable examples of pop-up retailing, for example by Chobani and Samsung Electronics.
Jacquemus and COMME des GARÇONS, two France-based luxury fashion labels represented in Korea by Samsung C&T Fashion Group, recently opened pop-up stores in the Seongsu neighborhood, often called the Brooklyn of Korea and known for its new-meets-old aesthetic, where restaurants and ateliers have appeared in repurposed industrial spaces. It is the same area where a year ago Samsung C&T casual brand 8 seconds had its Chuurucks pop-up mobile store.
A unique boutique
Causing many heads to turn on the streets of Seongsu last month was a building with a façade clearly resembling the distinctive and elegantly puffy Le Bambinou bag from Jacquemus. Upon stepping inside the 183-square-meter structure, visitors found they were inside a clean, bright white space. This was Le Café Fleur Boutique, a pop-up store also in Seongsu devoted exclusively to the French label named after its designer.
The eye-catching and fun pop-up store, open until Oct. 29, was the first of its kind in Asia and welcomed people to immerse themselves in the look and feel of the brand. Le Café Fleur Boutique was three spaces in one, each one offering visitors a different way to experience Jacquemus.
The first place visitors saw was Café Corner, offering 8 different beverages including coffee. The featured drink was cherry-ade, containing real cherries and with a deep red color. The next space was the Flower Corner, where a limited number of bouquets of white-colored lisianthus flowers were sold each day in packages featuring the Jacquemus logo. The third and final section of Le Café Fleur Boutique stocked key accessories from the LE CHOUCHOU collection, such as bags, scarves, and hats.
Le Café Fleur Boutique was designed to give people a taste of Jacquemus and whet their appetite, nudging them to want to know and see more. Likewise, other concept pop-up stores have been opened in Paris, France, and Portofino, Italy, offering visitors a chance to experience the playful and attractive brand identity of Jacquemus.
COMME des GARÇONS has come to Seongsu
Until the end of the year, casual streetwear brand COMME des GARÇONS has a 2-story pop-up store on the first and second floors of a culture complex in Seongsu named Stage 35. This temporary retail outlet, in a cozy 132 square meters of space, will exclusively showcase the CDGCDGCDG line.
The CDGCDGCDG line produces items influenced by a street mood and featuring large, bold lettering spelling CDG and COMME des GARÇONS. This line has become popular through its exciting collaborations with other brands like Vans, Stüssy, and Alpha Industries.
Young people can directly feel and experience the range of garments that comprise the CDGCDGCDG line and experience the brand identity while being surrounded by it at this pop-up store. The space is box-shaped with the signature CDG logo printed in huge letters on a white background on the floor, walls, and ceiling.
Although it’s not a big store, it feels somehow roomy, because the items are spaced out, giving people a chance to fully appreciate the items on display. Here, visitors will see not just the already popular CDGCDGCDG items, but also exclusive new products that are being released in Korea for the first time, including a zip-up hoodie and a padded vest in collaboration with Alpha Industries.
Samsung C&T Fashion Group says that while this pop-up store will close on the last day of 2023, it plans to use various types of strategies next year to give more opportunities for young people to fall in love with COMME des GARÇONS.
Both the COMME des GARÇONS and Jacquemus pop-up stores in Seongsu exhibit the pride of Samsung C&T Fashion Group in the international luxury brand that it represents in Korea. Visitors to “the Brooklyn of Seoul” and other hot neighborhoods can look forward to other exciting pop-up experiences of their favorite Samsung C&T brands in the future.
