Hazzys, the premium contemporary casual brand of lifestyle company LF, is stepping up its in-store experience and content at its Myeongdong locations to capture the peak season for foreign tourists that follows the Chuseok holiday. With holidays across major East Asian countries running from mid-September through October and concentrating inbound travel demand to Korea, Hazzys said it continues to post growth in Myeongdong, fueled by foreign tourists' appetite for 'K-fashion' shopping.
The company explained that as the categories foreign tourists shop for in Korea have recently broadened from cosmetics, food and household goods to fashion, interest is also growing in K-fashion, which allows shoppers to experience the design and quality of Korean brands firsthand.
According to LF, foreign-customer sales at Space H Seoul, the Hazzys flagship store in Seoul's Myeongdong, rose 40% year-on-year from Sept. 21 to 30, a period that included the Chuseok holiday. Over the same period, foreign customers accounted for 70% of total sales. Among foreign visitors to the store, Chinese and Taiwanese customers made up about 70%, Southeast Asian and Japanese customers about 10% each, and customers from outside Asia about 10%. As the fall season got fully underway, both male and female customers showed strong interest in the 'shacket,' an item that straddles the line between a shirt and a jacket.
The brand is also widening its offline presence. In September, Hazzys opened a standalone store at Lotte Duty Free's Myeongdong main branch, adding another point of contact with customers in Myeongdong, where foreign tourist traffic is concentrated, alongside its Space H Seoul flagship.
Expecting the rise in foreign customers to continue through the October tourism peak, Hazzys will progressively strengthen its in-store experience and content centered on Myeongdong. The strategy is to turn Space H Seoul from a mere retail space into a 'K-fashion shopping destination' that foreign visitors can experience firsthand and remember from their trip to Korea.
First, the brand will produce a 'Myeongdong K-Shopping Curation Map' for foreign tourists, to be distributed free of charge in store. The map offers an at-a-glance guide to fashion, beauty and lifestyle shopping spots around Myeongdong, personally selected by fashion editors. The aim is to expand Space H Seoul's role into a starting point for shopping in Myeongdong and a K-shopping guide for foreign tourists.
Hazzys is also preparing experiential content tied to its free luggage storage service, which is popular with travelers. Visitors who enter their names in English, Chinese or Japanese on tablets placed in Space H Seoul will see them converted into Hangul, and will receive a 'Hazzys Harry Luggage Tag' on which they can write and decorate their Korean name. By offering a luggage tag to attach to travel bags as a keepsake, the brand plans to let visitors experience Korean culture and the brand together, going beyond shopping.
Hazzys is also expanding its content strategy to draw foreign customers into its stores. Having wrapped up the second cohort of its foreign creator program, the 'Hazzys TikTok Crew,' the brand has begun recruiting a third cohort expanded to 50 participants. The Hazzys TikTok Crew promotes Hazzys and Space H Seoul through the eyes of foreign creators.
According to the company, after the first cohort's activities, foreign visitors and sales at Space H Seoul each more than doubled compared with the previous three months, while followers of Hazzys' official TikTok channel grew 56% over the same period. LF said content introducing Myeongdong travel routes and the free luggage storage service drew comments such as "A must-visit when I go to Korea" and "Added to my Seoul travel list."
From the second cohort onward, the content scope expanded beyond products and stores to Korean travel and lifestyle more broadly, naturally weaving Hazzys into topics likely to interest foreigners, such as Myeongdong hot spots, Korean fashion trends and travel in Seoul. LF said participating creators found it refreshing that a fashion brand runs a long-term creator program for foreigners, and gave positive feedback on the approach of creating content through three months of ongoing communication with the brand rather than a one-off collaboration. In the third cohort, 50 foreign creators will present content connecting Korean travel, fashion and culture with Hazzys from their own perspectives.
The way foreign tourists buy fashion is also changing. Rather than stopping at a single item for themselves, they are increasingly buying gifts for family and friends as well, the company said. Hazzys' 'Iconic' series, inspired by obangsaek, the five traditional Korean colors, continues to prove popular with foreign customers thanks to its wide range of colors and an assortment spanning men's, women's and kids'. At Space H Seoul, foreign customers buy an average of two to three Iconic T-shirts, often purchasing the same item in multiple colors or picking out gifts for parents, spouses and friends. Preferences also vary by country: Chinese customers favor items in colors such as red and blue with a prominent brand identity, while Japanese customers prefer clean, basic styles. Photos released by LF show foreign shoppers browsing the Iconic collection at Space H Seoul in Myeongdong.
"Foreign tourists' shopping in Korea is expanding beyond traditionally popular categories such as cosmetics and food toward experiencing Korean brands' fashion and lifestyle firsthand," a Hazzys official said. "In line with the steady flow of foreign tourists in October and November, we will strengthen content that travelers can directly take part in and share, building Space H Seoul into Myeongdong's flagship K-fashion shopping hub."
The Myeongdong K-Shopping Curation Map and the Hazzys Harry Luggage Tag event will be offered at the Space H Seoul store in Myeongdong, while Hazzys TikTok Crew content can be found on Hazzys' official TikTok channel and other platforms.
