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Let's visit iconic vintage clothing stores in Korea together. You will never regret visiting these shops, whether out of curiosity or serious interest in vintage. Are you ready to roll? Soobaak (watermelon) Vintage is our first destination!
September 24, 2021

Iconic vintage clothing stores in Korea 1

Sean Jee (insta @detailance)
Sean Jee (insta @detailance)
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I barely bought any new clothes over the last year. There are many reasons for that. I guess one is that I got bored with buying new clothes after spending about ten years in the fashion industry constantly around new clothes. I also find the strange feeling of new fabrics that are crisp and stiff a little uncomfortable.  

Along with these changes, my interest naturally shifted to vintage clothes. I have been getting one to five small items per month from the vintage clothing stores introduced in this article, all well within my budget.

The vintage industry in South Korea has grown steeply over the last few years. The rapid growth doesn’t come as a surprise at all given the growth of the overall fashion industry as more and more people view clothes as a culture, not simply fashion. Consumers started looking for not simply old items but old items with special meanings as their understanding of vintage has improved as the industry has grown. Interest in secondhand items often increases in an economic downturn, like during the pandemic. Some folks have also stopped buying new clothes for environmental purposes. All of these make sense and explain the rapid growth of the vintage clothing sector.

To me, the biggest contributor to the vintage boom in Korea seems to be the world-class vintage shops that have made their name with exceptional items that could be appreciated anywhere on this planet. Good things spread at lightning speed through word of mouth. Then, more people go to these vintage shops. Such an increase in vintage demand led to a lot of new vintage clothing stores with an ambition of replicating the success stories. This virtuous cycle where both the supply and demand side of the vintage clothing industry has helped the vintage boom become an independent culture.

Today, I plan to introduce you to iconic vintage clothing shops in Korea that played a central role in popularizing the vintage industry over the last 10 years. I am more interested in their stories than their products. So, this article focuses on the stories of these shops. You will never regret visiting these shops, whether out of curiosity or serious interest in vintage. Are you ready to roll?

Soobaak Vintage (Soobaak means watermelon in Korean)

It was several years ago when I first heard about Soobaak Vintage. Someone posted about the store on an online fashion community, saying “there is an interesting vintage clothing store. The founder is a pastor, so the place is run as a vintage clothing store six days a week but turned into a church on Sunday.” I was wondering about the store and its owner for a while. I found out it was Soobaak Vintage later.

I met Jeongyeol Kim, founder and owner of Soobaak Vintage and a pastor, at its shop in Sinsa-dong, which is known as Sinsa Soobaak. We are now friends. How did we become friends? Long story short, we found that both of us attended the same church when we were kids, and we are the same age. So, we quickly became friends when we met each other for the first time earlier this year.

Figure 1. Vans shoes in Soobaak (watermelon) catch my eye.
Figure 2. Let's zoom in on the Vans in Soobaak.

The primary theme of Soobaak Vintage is American casual wear from around the early 90s. Particularly, Soobaak has a lot of vintage reproduction clothes, which reinterpret original vintages into a modern casual style. For example, chino pants reproduced by popular brands in the 90s which were based on pleated pants known as M47s worn by French army officers back in the forties and fifties; or reproduced trousers inspired by vintage US army officer chino pants with a bit more modernity than the originals.

Of course, Soobaak has original vintage items as well. I think the ratio of reproductions to original vintages is about 70:30.

How did a pastor start a vintage clothing store?

First thing first, I asked this question of Jeongyeol as I wondered too. He said he started his mandatory military service at a slightly younger age than average and wanted to do fashion for a living after the military service. But he eventually studied theology and became a pastor.

While pastoring a church, Jeongyeol realized that fashion was at the center of his meaningful relationships with the people he liked. Those who love fashion easily click with each other via insignificant chitchats about a shirt or pants.

In November, 2017, Jeongyeol finally made up his mind to start fashion pastoring. The full support from his adventurous wife was a big encouragement. His first store was opened in Yeoksam-dong in January, 2018—the beginning of Yeoksam Soobaak.

Figure 3. Jeongyeol Kim, founder and CEO of Soobaak Vintage, chose jeans and then matched a shirt and jacket with them. He is really good at styling himself and wears his clothes fashionably. Soobaak’s customers are fascinated by his style.

Why Soobaak (soobaak means watermelon in Korean)?

Why is a vintage clothing shop named Soobaak (watermelon)? Does Jeongyeol personally like watermelon? Jeongyeol Kim, founder and CEO of Soobaak Vintage, gave me an answer.

“Soobaak is a disguise, or camouflage in the military used to hide oneself on a battlefield. You know it, right? I’m a vintage guy at Soobaak Vintage but actually a pastor at the same time. So, maybe selling vintage clothes is my camouflage.”

Jeongyeol shared his additional thoughts. “But I have never viewed Soobaak Vintage as a channel for evangelization. I consider that perspective arrogance. That’s why what I’m doing every day is the end goal of Soobaak Vintage. Jesus didn’t try to convert people but just wanted to be friends with them. Likewise, I just want to be friends with people rather than try to accomplish something. That’s it.”

“Also, soobaak (watermelon) tastes good, is friendly, easy and simple. There might be some folks who do not like soobaak (watermelon). But I don’t think I have ever met anyone who hates it.” That makes sense to me. Personally, I like the name more as it immediately reminds me of certain images.

He continued. “Soobaak (watermelon) looks awesome when it’s written in the Korean characters and it gives people the impression that we sell those brands that could be called Korean vintage like Hunt or Underwood. Most importantly, watermelon is green and black—colors we love.”

Figure 4. Soobaak's storefront sign for its store in Sinsa
Figure 5. Soobaak Vintage publishes a magazine called Green and Black, which represents the signature colors of soobaak (watermelon).

What is Soobaak Vintage good at?

90s American casual, specifically Polo Ralph Lauren Oxford cotton button down shirts and Levi’s 501 jeans from the late 80s and early 90s, are items that represent Soobaak the best. On his trip to Berlin, Germany in January 2018 to buy vintage furniture, Jeongyeol saw huge stacks of Levi’s 501 jeans in a corner of a vintage shop that were sorted by vintage year, types of wash and country of manufacture including Belgium, France, US and so on. It’s one of Jeongyeol’s dreams to replicate that at Soobaak Vintage.

Another reason that these are selected as Soobaak’s main items is to do with Woody Allen, the persona of Soobaak Vintage. Jeongyeol believes Levi’s 501 jeans, unlike brands with extremely slick and modern silhouettes such as Italy’s Jacob Cohen or Japan’s Resolute, have something unique that makes them look great anytime, anywhere. They are like Pyeongyang naengmyeon, which is not spicy or savory but has a taste that can be enjoyed anytime without getting boring.

Woody Allen’s old Ivy look has similar implications for Jeongyeol. Soobaak is built on the 501 jeans as its cornerstone and adds other items that he believes get along well with the jeans.

Figure 6. Soobaak Vintage always has 10 pairs of Levi’s 501 jeans at minimum, usually more than that.
Figure 7. Soobaak private label button down Oxford shirts made in-house leveraging their expertise. These shirts are sold under the brand SVC, which denotes Soobaak Vintage Clothing.

It is a specialty of Soobaak Vintage and Jeongyeol Kim to find stories for each item they carry. Soobaak curates their products on Instagram along with proposed styles and stories around their items. It’s not just a piece of fabric that Soobaak Vintage delivers to their customers. They share with their customers way more than that—how they procured the vintage items, conversations with original owners of the vintages and what they reveal about the history and backdrop of the items, and some style suggestions for the vintage clothes. He thinks he sells stories more than vintage clothes.

Recently, Jeongyeol is very interested in environmental issues as well—water pollution caused by wasted fabric dyes, greenhouse gas emissions by the fashion industry and the fact that clothing is one of the detrimental effects on the environment. These stories are packaged together with each item customers buy. I guess that’s probably why Soobaak’s Instagram reads like a magazine from time to time.

Figure 8. Soobaak recently sold many vintage Cartier Tanks. Reading through their history, scarcity values and suggested styles on Soobaak’s Instagram, I was convinced into getting one of them. Wait, let me check their prices first…

Who are Soobaak Vintage’s customers?

Jeongyeol Kim never says something like “oh, these items are real treasures with tons of scarcity values” about the vintage items at Soobaak.  He rather says “clothes are just clothes at the end of the day. Pick things up if you get a crush on them irresistibly without too much thought. And style them whichever way you want.”

His easygoing philosophies on vintage clothing seem to resonate with a great variety of people. Its customers range from college kids fresh out of high school to those in their 40s and 50s, an unusual customer profile for vintage clothing stores. Jeongyeol’s hope is that Soobaak customers can enjoy good vintage clothes for a small amount of money, around $40 to $60 per month, without financial pressures. That way, they can nonchalantly pick stuff if they fall in love with it.

So, he wants to have more people casually enjoying vintage clothes as a pastime for fun, unlike more serious vintage clothing collectors in desperate need of specific items. In line with this attitude, Soobaak fills up their shelves and racks with new vintage clothes at a much faster pace than they are sought after.

Soobaak should be continually filled with new vintage items for anyone who comes by for fun. That’s Jeongyeol’s belief.  

Figure 9. Soobaak has $30 shirts, as well as dress shoes for hundreds of dollars, as in the photo above. Just look around the store aimlessly and mix and match whatever catches your eyes. That’s the beauty of Soobaak.

Future of Soobaak Vintage

A four-year-old vintage clothing shop with rapid growth since the beginning. What are the values that Soobaak has tried to keep intact over the last four years? Or has anything changed during the time?

“Honestly, there is no specific value at Soobaak that we think can never change. So, it’s probably only my priceless employees and myself that I can say with confidence haven’t changed over the time for sure”, said Jeongyeol.

He added this at the end of our dialogue. “When Chanel made necklaces a long time ago, it is said that they put real jewels and fake plastics in the same bucket and chose whatever looks the best for necklaces. They valued more what actually looked great to their eyes than actual economic values. I personally find it very interesting for things with high economic values and those that seem worthless to coexist hand in hand—like $50 vintage jeans displayed right next to thousands of dollars of vintage clothes.”

Figure 10. Margiela x Ruby helmet, bottom left of the picture above. It’s about $3,000. Soobaak has various items, ranging from such rare vintage pieces to more affordable, popular items familiar to most people.

Soobaak has already created a brand and started a magazine. I look forward to seeing what they do next.

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More photos of Soobaak Vintage
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