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subscribe to style file blog via RSSsteven alan’s seoul diary
July 29, 2008 9:53 am
Thursday, July 24
After a 17-hour journey, I arrive in South Korea at about 4 p.m. local time. I’m met by two executives from the Galleria department store, who drive me to my hotel. After dinner at a very traditional Korean home-style restaurant called Aloc, we go to a dessert place called Miel that’s owned by a friend of theirs. It was pretty interesting—the owner went to RISD and rotates the art on the walls monthly. As it turns out, another friend of the Galleria people throws a weekly party that’s popular with the Korean fashion community, and it’s tonight. It’s called Life’s a Beach, and most people had a kind of Hawaiian theme going on, with flower necklaces and bathing suits. But I’m barely awake, so I decide to go back to my hotel at about 1 a.m.
In the afternoon we go to the Galleria to visit my shops there and have a brief meeting with my staff. The Steven Alan shops here are women’s only, and carry my line along with eight other designers like Mayle, 3.1 Phillip Lim, and Alexander Wang. We also have another concept here called Steven Alan Girl, which is geared to a much younger customer.
The Galleria people show me around an old neighborhood called Sam-chung Dong that’s been historically preserved. We have some wine and dessert at a very old place called Ann, which has several exhibits on the wall of tobacco pipes and old cigarette packs dating back from ancient times. Then we drive back to the hotel. The 15-to-30-minute car trips are when I get some of my best sleep.
Saturday July 26
I’m wide awake at 6:30 a.m., watching a Korean drama without subtitles. I thought it might make me sleepy but it didn’t. At 9:30 I get picked up and we go to a special jade sauna that’s popular with politicians. In the afternoon we go to see some shops in the Apgujeong area. The first stop is Corso Como. They’ve done an excellent job of replicating the original in Milan. There are rooms full of apothecary items, furniture, men’s and women’s clothes, etc. Then we go to Boon the Shop, which is definitely one of the best stand-alone stores here. Aside from the Galleria, it’s one of the best shopping experiences under one roof I’ve been to in South Korea. The building is four stories tall and they just added another building for men’s clothing. Then we head to a pretty shopping street called Karo Su Gil, which is one of the few tree-lined streets in Seoul. It has a kind of Bleecker Street sensibility. At around 5 p.m. we head to In-sa Dong. This is one of the only old traditional shopping areas left in the city. There are several people selling pottery, handmade necklaces, and authentic traditional snack foods—even boiled caterpillars. We stop off for some desserts. The day ends at 4 a.m. with me watching CNN in my room.
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