South Korea’s street fashion retailer ALAND will open a three-story flagship store in New York and test Brooklyn’s trendiest retail corridors, an attempt that Korean large fashion conglomerates have all failed in the last few years.

According to the fashion industry Thursday, ALAND plans to open its first U.S. store at 92 North 6th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York.

ALAND, founded in 2005, is a multi-concept store which offers its customers a wide array of choices ranging from clothing, shoes, accessories and living and beauty goods made by over 100 new designers. It runs 17 stores in Korea, integrating hip clothing shops scattered across popular fashion districts such as Hongdae and Myeongdong in each outlet. It is highly credited for lowering the barrier for fledgling designers to enter the market.

It is not the first time that a Korean fashion retailer opens a store in the fashion center in New York. Korean fashion conglomerate E-Land Group previously opened a store retailing its casual brand Who.A.U in 2007, but shut down it last year. An E-Land official explained that the closure came following its recent acquisition of sports brand K-Swiss. The firm plans to retail K-Swiss products in the U.S. later.

But an industry source said making a splash in the U.S. market has been difficult even for a big, well-known fashion company, adding if ALAND, a smaller Korean clothing retailer, succeeds in the U.S., it would mean a big deal.

ALAND’s Brooklyn store will take up the entire building with a floor area of about 10,000 square meters, which has ground floor, first and second floors and also roof access. It is under construction with an aim of opening within this year, a company official said.

It will sell not only current Korean designers’ products but also local designers’ in its first U.S. store, and open more stores in the U.S., the company official said.

By Park Eun-jin

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