Musinsa Standard sets up shop in Daegu, Korea's O.G. textile hub

Life & Style

Published: 22 Sep. 2023, 15:04 Updated: 25 Sep. 2023, 09:27

Musinsa Standard sets up shop in Daegu, Korea's O.G. textile hub

Musinsa Standard's new Daegu store, which opened Friday [SHIN MIN-HEE]

DAEGU — The streets of Dongseong-ro, arguably the busiest shopping area in Korea's southeastern metropolitan city, just welcomed a major fashion store into the neighborhood: Musinsa Standard.

In the brand's first attempt venturing outside of Seoul, Musinsa has opened its Musinsa Standard flagship store in Daegu on Friday. It's the biggest in scale when compared to the other two stores in Seoul, one in Hongdae in Mapo District, western Seoul, and another in Gangnam in Seocho District, southern Seoul. The new Daegu building boasts five stories filled with garments for all genders.

Run by local fashion e-commerce company Musinsa, the brand focuses on a collection of modern and basic garments sold at affordable prices. On the Musinsa platform, Musinsa Standard’s products, including slacks and belts, have proven to be steady best sellers. The brand has sold over 4 million pairs of its slacks alone over the years. Musinsa Standard achieved an annual turnover of 200 billion won ($149.2 million) in 2022.

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The women's section of Musinsa Standard's new Daegu store [MUSINSA]

So why did the booming fashion e-commerce company pick Daegu as the location for its latest store?

Daegu's history goes way back in terms of fashion and clothes. The development of the modern textile industry began in the mid-20th century, and as the city, dubbed “the city of textiles,” was relatively less damaged than Seoul and its surrounding areas after the 1950-53 Korean War, factories were planted in Daegu, including the country's first nylon manufacturer that later would become Kolon Group. Even Samsung’s fashion division, Samsung C&T, home to SPA brand 8seconds, started out as Cheil Industries, a textile industry company, in Daegu.

Throughout the 1980s, Daegu established its reputation as a mecca for fabric manufacturers in all related fields, including yarn, needlework, dyes and knitwear.

The lobby of the new Musinsa Standard store in Daegu [SHIN MIN-HEE]

Due to Daegu’s iconic historical background in the country's fashion scene, Musinsa says the city was hard to pass up when deciding the next location for its new store.

By branching out to numerous areas, the label hopes it can grow into an “independent brand,” Seon Jin-yeong, head of Musinsa Standard’s offline department, said on Thursday at the new Daegu store.

“We first dove into the offline business because we wanted to provide the online experiences in the real world,” Seon said. “If our initial goal was to present what sort of brand Musinsa Standard is, now we want to expand our business scale and show that Musinsa Standard is no longer merely a subsidiary of Musinsa.”

The new store puts emphasis on differentiating itself in a number of ways, like by putting on display exclusive products that are only available at the Daegu location.

Pentathlete Jun Woong-tae wears Team Korea’s uniform for the opening and closing ceremony of the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou, which was designed by Musinsa Standard. The collection is available to purchase in limited quantities on both the Musinsa app and at the Musinsa Standard Daegu store. [MUSINSA]

One such item is Team Korea’s uniform for the opening and closing ceremony of the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou, which was designed by Musinsa Standard after signing a memorandum of understanding with the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee earlier this year. The collection is all white, including a denim jacket and pants, along with accessories like shoes and socks.

The Daegu store also comes with fitting rooms that have individually customizable lighting and “pick-up lockers” that allow customers to pick up items that they ordered online the same day, so long as the order was made before 7 p.m.

Musinsa Standard plans to open another store next month in Seongsu-dong of Seongdong District, eastern Seoul, which has surged in recent years as a hot spot for trendy pop-up or flagship stores. It also has plans to set up shop in the Seomyeon neighborhood in Busan within this year, another central commercial hub.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]