It’s a fall evening in Seoul, and a small group of Korean dancers dressed in traditional black and white robes are clanging brass gongs and chanting at the entrance to Wooyoungmi’s sleek new flagship. The crowd follows the procession through the imposing front doors and upstairs to a large space, where, on a table surrounded by pyramids of glossy persimmons, sits an offering of a pig’s head.
As the music crescendos, a line of guests offer up envelopes of money, which they place into the swine’s open mouth before bowing. A common ritual in Korea known as gosa, it is held to cleanse bad vibes and bring good fortune to new ventures. The occasion is timely: this is Wooyoungmi’s first standalone store in Seoul, and the onset of a retail strategy the label is betting on.
South Korea’s first global menswear brand
Youngmi Woo, the brand’s owner and founder, knows that fortune doesn’t come easy. A cool and collected 66-year-old, known in the industry as “Madame Woo”, she glides through the crowd in a sharply tailored black suit and large sunglasses. As CEO of Solid Corporation, which owns Wooyoungmi and its more conservative brother, Solid Homme, she is in charge of one of South Korea’s most powerful fashion houses.
Founded in 1998 as Korea’s first designer menswear brand, Solid Homme paved the way for Wooyoungmi, which launched in 2002 and became the first Korean label to show at Paris Fashion Week. The brand operates two stores in Paris, is sold across 24 countries with 70 stockists, and employs 150 people globally. In 2024, Solid Corporation reported revenues of €72 million, and sales for Wooyoungmi have shown steady annual growth of approximately 10% to 20% over the past few years.
Located in Itaewon, formerly home to US army barracks and now a cosmopolitan enclave, the new store’s location is part of a wider retail strategy to assert influence at home. “During the pandemic, I realized the need to have a place where you can physically and directly engage with the customers,” Madame Woo says, speaking from her expansive office in Gangnam. While Wooyoungmi shares space with Solid Homme at the aforementioned Seoul store, this is the first time the label (which also sells womenswear) will be merchandised alone in Seoul. Madame Woo sees it as an opportunity for the brand to shore up its identity there.
