Nina Jobst
Research expert covering South Korea
Apparel industry in South Korea - statistics & facts
South Korea's capital city Seoul is developing into a fashion capital, hosting events like the Seoul Fashion week. The country's fashion market size stood at over 48.4 trillion South Korean won. With this, the Korean fashion had not only recovered from the slow down during the pandemic but set a new domestic record. The luxury goods and bags market, the trendy street casual wear market, and the sports shoe market especially drove this growth. In fact, casual wear remained a strong segment in the industry throughout all recent phases of market development.
Going casual
The formal wear market has traditionally been a large component but due to the influence of the business casual trend, consumption of formal wear items shifted to the casual wear and sportswear market. Casual wear now occupies an increasing proportion of the Korean apparel market. While many apparel items went through fluctuations, the casual wear market has recorded a consistently positive growth rate over the past years. In the Korean casual wear market, T-shirts accounted for the largest portion, followed by pants, shirts, and jackets. In terms of purchase channels, outlet shops or department stores. The Japanese brand Uniqlo had regained its footing after losing the leading position as the most purchased casual brand in South Korea due to the 2019 boycott of Japanese products. Together with domestic brands, such as Hazzys and Beanpole, it was competing for the lead.Online market and the big 5 fashion platforms
In part due to high internet penetration and fast internet speeds, the Korean online apparel market has continued to grow. Online apparel sales accounted for the one of the largest proportions of online shopping transactions, following food related sales and travel sales. While offline fashion companies are struggling with a decrease in shoppers, online fashion companies are recording sales growth despite the recession. Especially, the "big 5" fashion platforms including Musinsa, Zigzag, Ably, Brandi, and W Concept have attracted young consumers. The total transaction volume of these major platforms kept increasing , underlining the popularity and success of fashion e-commerce. Musinsa, one of the major players, was recognized as the 10th unicorn company in Korea. The companies achievements do not end there however, as they opened offline stores as well, and their brand Musinsa Standard even designed uniforms for the country’s Olympic athletes for the games in 2024.The future of South Korean fashion
South Koreans take great care of their outward appearance and accordingly, the interest in fashion is high. This is true for many celebrities as well, with more Korean celebrities entering into brand ambassadorships with global fashion and luxury brands. That way, brands can profit from the popularity of K-content while attention is also drawn to the Korean market. Based on the increasing number of cross-border transactions and the growing interest in Korean fashion the apparel market is expected to grow further.
