A Quick Tour of Luxury Shopping in Seoul

Part of the reason from my extended absence was I had to go to Seoul, Korea to take care of a few things.

There are so many facets to the city that I hardly know where to start.

Instead of trying to pack a hugely edited potpourri of tidbits, I plan on sharing aspects of the culture and city in several posts to share with those of you who may be interested.

One aspect I found interesting myself was shopping in Seoul.

Seoul has always been a market town for hundreds of years and is the same today.
It has famous street markets but also has created a shopping niche that I have only seen in Tokyo.

Luxury shopping around the world in this postmodern age of globalization has become so universal.
If you enter a high end brand boutique anywhere around the world, it is the physical embodiment of CNN - you could be anywhere.

But in Seoul, they take luxury shopping to the next level.

A boutique doesn't suffice, they make stand alone buildings.

As this Givenchy store demonstrates, they need to make a strong statement to physically stamp their presence.  The trend for architect and interior designer stores started out in Tokyo which filtered its way through to Seoul.

This MCM store which I would have otherwise ignored was literally glowing and reflecting off sunlight that I couldn't help but notice.

Part of me does wonder what the floors that don't have any windows above the store front contain.

Storage? Back offices for the retail arms?

It can't be empty because real estate in Seoul ranks among the world's most expensive.

The Tory Burch store is probably one of her biggest stores in the world and even was shown on the blog Habitually Chic in this post.  The interiors apart from her collection made a buzz in the press.

That would be the Cartier building next to the Ferragamo building...

Even old timer brands like Escada and Zegna still hold court for their baby boomer clientele who still like shopping.

I can't imagine many stores having store front parking  - not even in Los Angeles but Berluti in Seoul does.

By the time I got to Carolina Herrera and Dolce & Gabbana I was simply shocked at the amount of real estate that these stores had that I forgot to actually enter the stores!

Can you imagine 10 floors of Abercrombie and Finch?

The street which is called the Rodeo Drive of Seoul had all the required brands like Louis Vuitton, Armani and Gucci.

Dior was under construction and will be taking a whole corner.

I also noticed Hermes wasn't on this particular street and was told that their flagship store was on another street dedicated to luxury shopping just a few minutes away.

 Upon arrival at the Dosan Park area, there was what was fast becoming a familiar concept of a whole building a store like this one for Ralph Lauren.

 Due to my weakness of not being able to pass a bookshop, 

I took great delight in this Assouline bookstore.

 I quite enjoyed see the Korean flag waving proudly on a street dedicated solely to selling foreign made goods.

In the spirit of being the Korean version of Rodeo Drive, 

there was the obligatory coiffed poodle on tow.

 This Rick Owens store scared me a little.

I should clarify, the mannequin not the store itself.

Then I found the Hermes flagship store which seemed much more spacious than the flagship store in Paris.

 The store was like any other except for the space to showcase their home wares and furniture line.

 Another reason for the size of the building was that they tend to have a special floor designated for exhibitions 

and a permanent display collection that was unfortunately closed during my visit.

 Another unique feature to the store was that the Hermes store had its own cafe.

 The tea was also served in Hermes porcelain and even had its own courtyard and wi-fi for customers!

 After all that gallivanting around those shops, the only thing I bought all day was a cup of tea!