• Burmese
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
27 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Asia

Korean ‘Fast Fashion’ Gains Cachet in Asia

Joyce Lee by Joyce Lee
July 2, 2013
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0 0
A A
Korean ‘Fast Fashion’ Gains Cachet in Asia

People walk along Apgujeong Rodeo Street in the Gangnam area of Seoul. Known as Seoul's "Beverly Hills"

3.4k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

SEOUL — In central Seoul’s street fashion Mecca of Dongdaemun, more than 30,000 outlets and thousands of sewing workshops packed into a 2 sq. km area (3/4 square mile) churn out clothes in as little as a day.

That’s a lightning pace compared to the one to three weeks needed by global “fast” brands such as Inditex’s Zara and H&M.

Partly set up by displaced North Korean refugees after the 1950-53 Korean War, the shopping district was long home to seamstresses and merchants eking out a living by selling dyed military uniforms and, later, knock-offs of global luxury brands.

RelatedPosts

Myanmar Junta Moves into Nawnghkio Outskirts

Myanmar Junta Moves into Nawnghkio Outskirts

July 15, 2025
301
What the ‘Snake Charmer’ Analogy Gets Wrong About Myanmar

What the ‘Snake Charmer’ Analogy Gets Wrong About Myanmar

July 15, 2025
250
Myanmar and Russian Regimes Push Indian Trade Corridor to Bypass Western Sanctions

Myanmar and Russian Regimes Push Indian Trade Corridor to Bypass Western Sanctions

July 15, 2025
233

Now, Dongdaemun is emerging as a real power for Korea Inc, best known for its Samsung smartphones and engineering, leading its apparel industry’s overseas expansion.

“Dongdaemun might be the only place on Earth where if a design is decided and ordered in the morning, raw materials can be purchased by noon at the latest and finished products start arriving at the shop on the same day,” said Lim Joon-weon, director of operations at Lotte Asset Development’s FitIn mall in Dongdaemun.

Behind the swift production is an ecosystem that includes 35,000 retail and wholesale clothing shops, the country’s largest fabric market, and an estimated 5,000 sewing workshops of six to 10 workers each, operating in close proximity.

Similar turnaround time in an organically-formed fashion hub is unheard of even in places like Guangzhou in southern China, where the scale of the wholesale market is too vast to enable such rapid production, Lim said.

Great Expansion

Privately owned E-Land Group Chairman Park Song-soo first opened a clothes shop in front of Seoul’s Ewha Womans University in 1984, but is now in the forefront of the overseas expansion of Korean fashion brands.

E-Land began retail sales in China in 1997 and has carved out a slice of the fragmented fashion market as one of the top five apparel retailers, according to a 2012 Standard & Poor’s report, with average annual growth of 60 percent over the past 10 years.

It has more than 2,000 outlets in China and earned $1.8 billion last year, building its growth on different fits and colors for consumers in 60 different regions.

More recent fashion groups ride the coattails of the rising fortunes of K-Pop, Korean drama and celebrities like rapper Psy.

“Right now, the biggest draw is the ‘Made in Korea’ label,” said Yun Bum-suk, founder of fast fashion brand JEIKEI and wholesaler that yearly sells more than 3.5 million pairs of jeans in South Korea, China, Thailand and Vietnam.

“Consumers in Southeast Asia tended to respond better to the exact colour and style they’ve seen in Korean dramas than to clothes modified to fit local tastes.”

At Singapore’s Wheelock Place in the shopping district surrounding Orchard Road, a new flagship store for the Headline Seoul brand opened in late April. Its initial reception as a pop-up store in the Raffles Hotel last year was positive enough for founders to plan five more in Singapore and the Philippines and a shop in Malaysia to open later this year.

Chaebols Taking Note

Even units of conservative chaebols, or big business groups such as Samsung Group ‘s Cheil Industries Inc and LG Fashion Corp, are now shoring up their fast fashion brands and working on improving existing overseas stores’ profitability to go toe-to-toe with global brands.

But these companies have yet to prove their staying power in Asia and leverage the anecdotal expansion of South Korean chic into actual sales.

LG Fashion, which entered China in 2004, reported a 24 percent year-on-year drop in operating profit in the first quarter of 2013 as its wholly-owned Shanghai unit and its Beijing joint venture with Lafuma SA continued to report losses.

Cheil Industries, whose fashion business made up about 30 percent of total revenue in 2012, is considering the China launch of its new fast fashion brand 8seconds next year. But its Bean Pole brand remains a lackluster performer in China, analysts said.

“[Chaebol fashion firms] have got the cash and the retail experience,” said Park hee-jin, apparel sector analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp. “The biggest thing they need is time.”

Your Thoughts …
Joyce Lee

Joyce Lee

Reuters

Similar Picks:

Exodus: Tens of Thousands Flee as Myanmar Junta Troops Face Last Stand in Kokang
Burma

Exodus: Tens of Thousands Flee as Myanmar Junta Troops Face Last Stand in Kokang

by Hein Htoo Zan
November 28, 2023
98.5k

Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army troops are opening roads and pathways through forests for people to flee Kokang’s capital as...

Read moreDetails
Burning Alive in Myanmar: Two Resistance Fighters Executed in Public
Burma

Burning Alive in Myanmar: Two Resistance Fighters Executed in Public

by The Irrawaddy
February 7, 2024
89.9k

People’s Defense Force says junta troops told every household in the village to send one member to witness the double...

Read moreDetails
Another Entire Junta Battalion Raises the White Flag in Myanmar’s Northern Shan State
War Against the Junta

Another Entire Junta Battalion Raises the White Flag in Myanmar’s Northern Shan State

by The Irrawaddy
November 29, 2023
87.1k

Brotherhood Alliance member says it now has complete control of Kokang’s northernmost section after the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion 125...

Read moreDetails
Depleted Myanmar Military Urges Deserters to Return to Barracks
Burma

Depleted Myanmar Military Urges Deserters to Return to Barracks

by The Irrawaddy
December 4, 2023
59k

The junta said deserters would not be punished for minor crimes, highlighting the military’s shortage of troops as resistance offensives...

Read moreDetails
As Myanmar’s Military Stumbles, a Top General’s Dissapearance Fuels Intrigue
Burma

As Myanmar’s Military Stumbles, a Top General’s Dissapearance Fuels Intrigue

by The Irrawaddy
April 19, 2024
47k

The junta’s No. 2 has not been seen in public since April 3, sparking rumors that he was either gravely...

Read moreDetails
Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow
Burma

Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow

by The Irrawaddy
February 12, 2024
44.8k

Ethnic armed grouping says it will continue Operation 1027 offensive until goal of ousting the junta is achieved. 

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
Law Requires Chinese to Visit Their Aging Parents

Law Requires Chinese to Visit Their Aging Parents

China's Xi Harks Back to Mao in Party 'Cleanup'

China's Xi Harks Back to Mao in Party 'Cleanup'

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

6 days ago
1.3k
China’s Surveillance State Watches Everyone, Everywhere

China’s Surveillance State Watches Everyone, Everywhere

1 week ago
1.1k

Most Read

  • Myanmar Junta Launches Space Agency With Russian Help

    Myanmar Junta Launches Space Agency With Russian Help

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta’s ‘Living Fence’ on Thai Border Falls to Karen Resistance

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • TNLA Invites Investment in Ruby and Mineral Towns Amid Myanmar Junta Onslaught

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘Las Vegas in Laos’: the Riverside City Awash With Crime

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Indian Army Accused of Deadly Strike on Separatists in Myanmar

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.