Global fast-fashion or SPA (special store retailer of private label apparel) brands from European luxury lines to fast-growing Asian brands are rushing to enter South Korea in hopes to repeat the success of Japanese leading SPA brand Uniqlo in the neighboring country already crowded by a number of global and local SPA brands.

Recently, Hong Kong-based SPA brand 6IXTY8IGHT announced that it will open a flagship store in Myeongdong, downtown Seoul. Its first store in Korea will be the third largest in Asia with 992 square-meter space. 6IXTY8IGHT that targets teen girls and young ladies in their 20s and 30s sells a variety of garments including casual wears, training apparel and lingerie and currently runs over 130 stores in Hong Kong and China with huge population. It also plans to open its second Korean store in the fashion street of Garosu-gil in Sinsa-dong of southern Seoul.

A Sweden-based fashion company H&M Group`s luxury fast fashion brand ‘& Other Stories’ will also open its first Asian store in Korea in the Apgujeong shopping district in Seoul. The brand plans to open its second store at the Starfield Hanam shopping mall, the country’s largest shopping mall complex, and launch online shopping mall for Korean consumers by the end of this year.

Established in 2013, the brand features women`s wear, shoes, bags, cosmetic goods and fashion accessories. It is unusual that the world’s leading SPA brand rivaling with Spanish retailer Inditex Group which is the owner of the Zara fashion brand, chose Korea instead of China and Japan for its Asia expansion.

The aggressive forays by global SPA brands in Korea are attributable to previous success stories seen by their peers in the local market. Japanese fashion brand Uniqlo achieved 1 trillion won ($890 million) in annual sales in 2015 for the first time as a fashion brand in the country, while Zara Retail Korea raked in 290.5 billion won in sales during the same period. According to industry experts, Korea also serves as a test bed before global brands enter other Asian market after the country’s fashion trend has become an important indicator to the global fashion brands.

By Park Eun-jin

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