After being touted as the secret to the amazing wardrobes of the Korean local models and all the It girls like Soo Joo Park, Yaeji and Irene Kim, Aland is all set to test the waters of the United States’ fashion industry with its new store opening in Brooklyn on the 6th Street, right in the most populous borough of the New York City.
Housed in a heritage 100-year old building, in Brooklyn, and stretching across three stories a little away from Bedford Avenue, the store will not only display their iconic yet affordable streetwear clothes but also flaunt its affordable range of housewares, beauty, and accessories. The plain concrete slab floors, straight steel columns offset by timber beams and a bustle of bright green plants gives the Brooklyn store a homely feeling for the brand’s target customers, the collegiate youth, with a promise of affordable fashion flowing throughout as no products are more than a $100.
This brand was the brainchild of two Korean sisters, Kinam and Jung Eun Jung, who always wanted to sell extensively edited collection of affordable yet in-vogue basics, especially made by rising Korean designers right from Dearstalker to Fennec. Thus, they opened this brand 13 years ago, in Myeong-dong, Seoul.
Kinam, one of the two Jungs’, says that, “Thirteen years ago, most of our customers were Japanese, as locals were extremely unfamiliar both with emerging designers and the concept of a curated shop,” she says. “Rather than the clothes sewn at factories in mass, we chose unique, covet-able items. We also had to introduce them to what a concept shop is—that each hanger might have a different brand—and build that awareness.”
Seoul now is emerging as the destination with thriving street style and this fashion brand promises street style bridging the gap between basics and designer pieces.
Kinam claims the brand as a platform for the not so popular but extremely talented Korean designers, “We like to discover new designers, and then share their style with the customers. Customers don’t come to Aland simply to buy something. We think of it as a place for designers to share their unique point of view.”
