Madame Woo Youngmi likes to build things from the ground up. With the launch of her first label Solid Homme in 1988, she would introduce South Korea to the world of luxury menswear. Then, in 2003, she would bring a taste of Seoul to Paris as the first Korean designer to show on schedule with her second brand, Wooyoungmi. Today, the namesake label stands tall as one of her home country’s biggest and best dressed fashion exports, which in recent years has expanded to add womenswear and jewellery to its arsenal.
It’s fitting, then, that the lauded designer decided to construct Wooyoungmi’s new Seoul flagship from scratch. “When we first went to the plot of land [the store is built on], it gave me the feeling that it was shaped like a Buddha,” says Madame Woo, who herself is Buddhist. Spread across four floors, the towering structure is situated in the heart of Itaewon, one of the city’s most vibrant corners. “Our brand aspires to being very inclusive and the area is multicultural, young and trendy, so it was the right fit,” adds the designer.
The first thing you notice about the store is its striking gridded glass façade, which curves around the building before migrating into a grey concrete that camouflages elegantly into Itaewon’s snaking hills. A rare mineral paint sees the store slightly shift in hue, depending on the light that day.
It’s the brand’s second Seoul flagship and follows the opening of Wooyoungmi’s Paris store on Rue Saint-Honoré in 2023. “Our new store [in Seoul] is much more spacious. This is also my home ground, so I was really able to express deeply what I wanted to convey through the project.”
Designed alongside Swiss studio Stocker Lee Architetti, the store’s design translates the brand’s creative philosophy into building form. Madame Woo was guided by the architectural principle that “the horizontal plane is functional, while the vertical structure is emotional”, which means that moving through each floor brings an experiential journey for shoppers. Beginning with the menswear boutique, she worked with the artist Dongwook Choi to create pieces of furniture which echo the silhouettes of different body parts.
“I am Buddhist myself and I think a lot about people suffering. Prejudice is really challenged through the eyes, the mouth, the nose, the ears, the skin and our thoughts,” says Madame Woo. “Through these objects, I want to imbue the idea that all of this suffering and bias is fictitious and just concepts of your mind. I don’t know if the visitors will intuitively understand that intention but being open-minded is what I wanted to convey through the furniture.”
Venturing further, you reach the brand’s womenswear collection housed on the second floor. Shoppers can try on exclusive pieces inside giant curved fitting rooms that echo the store’s exterior. When we visited, hero pieces from the brand’s AW25 collection – rooted in the Korean philosophy of ch’ŏrhak, the art of carrying oneself with dignity – were displayed inside an exhibition space circled with sky-high crimson curtains.
Madame Woo’s has always been genderless in her approach to design, inspired by how people dress on the streets of Seoul. “I’m a woman who is neither very feminine nor masculine. If I compare the Wooyoungmi man to the Solid Homme man, I had envisioned a man as an ideal from the perspective of what young women envisioned at the time. As I’ve gotten older and more mature, I have a more generous understanding of men and how they can also be very vulnerable and go through the same pains and sadness as women. This is why the Wooyoungmi man can be more delicate.”
The multi-sensual experience continues with a café space featuring dark wood tables and is bathed in glorious light that breaks through the building’s glass exterior. Wooyoungmi will regularly host guests in the space for evening events, while during the day sweet treats local to the area will be served alongside cocktails. Reaching the rooftop, guests can relax in a delightful garden with postcard views of Seoul that was landscaped by Madame Woo’s sisters, Woo Hyunmi and Woo Kyungm. It invites you to enjoy a moment of quiet amid the noise of the city.
Photography courtesy of Wooyoungmi.
