the urban willow

Seoul is a treasure trove. Sure, you have to sift through piles of fluffy pink lace and ahjumma print shirts to unearth a good find sometimes, but the variety and quality is so much wider and higher than what we can find back home. 

A word of advice though, read the zeroes carefully. A friend nearly bought a pack of face masks for what she thought was 9000 won before realizing that it was actually 90,000. And that wasn't the only time something like that happened.

Hongdae.

Hongdae was by far one of my favourite places to shop. There was some kind of magnetic attraction to the area for us, and especially since we were staying there, we'd end up covering a little portion more of the retail circuit there every night. Prices in Hongdae can be a little steep sometimes - most fall between the 30 to 50,000 won range, though some shops dip down to 10,000 and some hit the 80,000 mark. I bought my boots for around 50k, and a friend bought hers for around 48k.

Even so, the quality of most of the stuff there is pretty good. There were two streets in particular that we frequented, both stretching off the roundabout/plaza area in the main part of Hongdae into the back and side streets. One starts from near Hongik University station exit 8, by a salon called Hair by A.T.O.M., and the other comes out by a lingerie shop called Eblin, I think. There are so many little boutiques that it doesn't really matter which way you turn, you'll end up with bags on your arms and a lighter wallet either way. 

 And, of course, there's Style Nanda's flagship store with the free photo booth on the ground floor.

 Hongdae has plenty of food options to replenish all that energy spent on retail therapy. This was from Myth Jokbal along the main plaza area in Hongdae. 

Also plenty of places to take step photos. 

Ewha

Ewha was something of a disappointment for us, actually. We'd heard that the area was one of the best and cheapest for female shopping and had pretty high expectations. Those expectations fell pretty flat after we were in for around fifteen minutes.

Part of it might have been that a lot of the stuff simply wasn't our style. There were a lot of floral prints and flouncy skirts, lace and sequined apparel, whereas we prefer more of the basic, monochromatic, cleaner cut stuff. Some prices did fall within the 5,000 to 20,000 won range, but those were mainly the racks outside the actual stores. The moment you entered, most of the tags jumped to about double the price at least. We left about an hour plus later and spent the rest of the day back in Hongdae. 

Not really our kind of stuff.

Dongdaemun

Dongdaemun was a very different shopping experience, to say the least. There are so many big malls that you don't really know where to start, and all of those malls contain multitudes of little stores, half of which sell repeats of what you find in the stores a floor above. 

The shop clerks tend to be a lot more assertive - on the men's floor especially (but I love how I can fit into guys clothes there), they all seem to have one opening line "Where you from? Singapore? I like Singapore!" Cue the pulling out of five different items and sprawling them under your nose. Some of the clerks - ahjummas especially - can get offended if you browse but don't buy, and might snub you as you leave. We saw this more in Migliore, which is a little bit reminiscent of Beijing's Xiu Shui Jie or Bangkok's Platinum. Prices weren't as low as we expected, but started upwards from around 20,000 to the 55,000 I spent on a coat, and even more for bags and some outerwear pieces.

Most of the street-side stalls only seemed to open up around 5 to 6pm onwards, selling much of the same stuff as what we saw in Migliore, for slightly reduced prices. Snapbacks for around 5,000 and heaps and heaps of heel lifts (which make you wonder how tall all the guys really are). 

We made our way over to Lotte Fitin, which is much more of an actual mall than some of the others (which were more of a mass of stalls under a roof), housing lockers and decent toilets, and restaurants on the upper floors. If you're a Kpop fan, you'll love the top floor of the building, which is basically like a shrine dedicated to some idol groups, and they host idol events (there was a fan sign meet the night we were there) from time to time. 

All my biggest ticket items from this trip in one photo: Grey neoprene jacket from Migliore, 55,000 won | Black tote bag from Lotte Fitin, around 60,000 won | Boots from Hongdae, 52,000 won

And it comes with the notepad and pencil! Which I carry around even though it's completely unsharpened. 

If you have time earlier on in the day, Dongdaemun Design Plaza is worth a visit. We only headed on over after Lotte Fin, and they were locking up by the time we arrived. Most of the stuff looked a lot pricier (think 100 to 200k) but also a lot more artistic and unique - the homegrown designer kind rather than the mass produced for blogshops kind. They have exhibit halls as well, and the architecture of the place is a spectacle in itself, with a very futuristic alien spaceship kind of exterior, and wide, sweeping staircases inside. 

Myeongdong

The atmosphere in Myeongdong was actually a lot better than what I'd expected. I'd envisioned row upon row of skyscrapers along the main boulevard - and it had all that, but it also had a bustling pedestrian-friendly shopping street sporting food and trinket stalls. It seemed like Hongdae, essentially, but a little older and more commercialized. Rather than spontaneous dance battles, you'd get people dancing to promote a telecom service. It was definitely a lot more sanitized than Hongdae, but still quite vibrant nonetheless.

We didn't spend long shopping in Myeongdong - just a few hours after our DMZ tour - but I could easily see why people said that it was the center of Korean cosmetics shopping. The Face Shop, Etude House, Skin Food, Innisfree, Laneige, Nature Republic. etc. with all their cardboard idol promoters lining the roads like some cutout variety show face off. And the prices and promotions are no joke either - the base price might be more or less the same as back home, but after all the samples and discounts that they add on, it's definitely well worth it. 

Clothes shopping wise, Myeongdong has some stores that looked decent, with roughly the same prices as in Hongdae, but nothing terribly remarkable. If anything, though, it's such a relief to be able to converse with the clerks without using sign language, since most of them speak Chinese. 

 And this was a weekday! 

Technicolor cotton candy!

Garosu-gil (Sinsa station)/Apgujeong

Garosu-gil's in Gangnam, and well known for being pricey, so we expected a lot of heartbreak that day. And there was quite a bit to begin with - most of the stores stocked really nice stuff, but prices fell between the 80 to 100k range most of the time. 

There were a couple of shops that don't require you to break the bank though: there's one close to Sinsa station called indi-something (memory like a sieve) which carries shorts and tops for prices ranging from 17 to 50+ k, and scarves for 16k. Alternatively, there's a shop called something along the lines of '5000 won shop' right next door to Coffee Chu, the churros place mentioned in Shu An's Seoul clicktv video (though we weren't impressed with the 3,500 won churros). While not everything can be bought for 5000 won, I did find a knockoff Acne tote for that price (beware: some of them say Akne or Acnf) and black peg pants for 25,000. 

It rained :(

But we came prepared. :)

The great thing about shopping in Seoul is that, even if you come with guys, there's plenty of stuff for them to shop for as well (assuming they're willing to spend), even cosmetics. Or, you could always just buy guy clothes for yourself to wear - perks of a city with androgynously-built guys. 

My main gripes about shopping in Seoul, though: 

1. What is it with Mickey Mouse? Everywhere? A perfectly nice basic bomber/sweatshirt/tee has to be ruined by some random print of Mickey's face slapped onto the front. 

2. Weird English slogans on stuff. They seem to really like New York, which is okay because it actually makes sense as a phrase. But stuff like "He said don't speak now because tomorrow is everyday" (okay that's a random one I just came up with, but seriously, that wouldn't be out of place) on a tee or snapback... just, no.

3. Local vs. foreign prices. Not sure if this is actually a thing or if we were just paranoid, but sometimes it seemed as though when we asked for the price in Korean, they'd tell us say, 55k, and when we clarified in English, they'd say that it's actually 65k. Or it could be that we misunderstood the Korean numbers.

4. No trying. Except for jeans and skirts, most of the time. Tops and dresses are generally a no-no (I think they're afraid of lipstick stains), so having a friend who can help you estimate well is a blessing. Our mentality was generally "If it doesn't fit, sell it on Carousel once we get home."

Last note: bargaining. 

We're typical Singaporeans in the sense that we like to get the best for our buck, but at the same time we don't really have that super thick skin necessary for banging the numbers down to half the original price. The easiest way to bargain, it seemed to us, would be to ask for a cash price, since as tourists we paid mostly by cash anyway. Some of the shops already have lower cash prices, but some of them might just knock a couple thousands off anyway even if they don't have them. From our experience, most of the Hongdae/Dongdaemun/Ewha shops are quite open to negotiation, but not so much in Myeongdong and Garosu-gil.

Okay this post has stretched on a lot longer than originally planned (especially compared to my previous one). It's off to the airport again for me in a few hours so I'd better finish off packing. Get ready for a spam of Hokkaido photos woohoo!