I did a lot of people watching on my Seoul trip. I spent a lot of time sitting in the palace gardens watching the visitors, local and foreign, and I took a very long subway ride which gave me a good chance to observe the locals. 2 prevalent trends jumped out at me quite quickly.
First, the hair. The latest hairstyle in Korea now is all about thick straight cut bangs or fringe, dropping down to curly, wavy layered hair on the sides. The most common was that of long hair. The hair was curled and waved from about midway down to the end resulting in lots of bouncy volume but the fringe was by contrast starkly thick and cut straight across. On girls with shorter hair, the hair was kept a bob, with the same heavy straight cut fringe, but the rest of the hair was curly and had lots of volume so they puffed out quite prettily. In the subway, out of 10 women, at least 8 had this hair style. And this was true of all facial shapes. Its no wonder when I last went for a haircut here, my Korean stylist asked if I was daring enough to go for a straight fringe. I wasn’t, but now I wonder if I might without looking like Moonface 🙂
the other trend I picked up on was the long blazer. It was not terribly cold anymore when I was there with the temperature hovering around 18°C most afternoons. So most of the ladies and young girls were in light blazers and the common trend, even in the stores, was that of the long blazer with narrow lapels and skimming the butt. It reminded me of blazers in the 80’s but more fitted and sans those Amazonian shoulder pads. But it looked good! And it got me wanting one, which I managed to pick up here at Uniqlo! 😀
To answer many questions, I did not buy any clothes, shoes or accessores in Korea (barring some winter jackets). Nothing jumped out at me. The only one that did was a lovely silk blouse somewhere in Dongdaemun market, but the lady wouldn’t drop her price enough so I passed.
Uniqlo opened its 2nd store at KLCC on Friday (how many of you went early enough to queue for the tote bag and freebies? 😀 ) and that was where I picked up my blazer – an interesting dark grey with a material that felt like jersey (or T-shirt material). It looked quite nondescript on the hanger, but it looks a lot better on.
The one I tried on in the photo was just a little too big so when I decided to buy it, I sized down. I also picked up that shirt dress which again, looked nondescript on the hanger (boring in fact) but which suited me to a T when I put it on 🙂
The launch of Uniqlo KLCC was a big affair. To showcase the Spring/Summer 2011 collection, they had some local personalities walk the catwalk instead of the usual models. The crowd loved it!
I particularly liked the jacket worn by Angie Ng and I trawled the KLCC store to find it, but to no avail. Turns out that the Uniqlo store at KLCC, although large is very much smaller than its 3 storey store at Fahrenheit 88. The selection of clothes for men and women were quite well balanced (usually men get the short end of the straw don’t they?) but it was lacking the women’s lingerie department and the more formal clothing. I’d say that the KLCC store is more focused on the casuals – loads of jeans and T-shirts abound while the Fahrenheit 88 store is more well rounded.
If I really planned to shop at Uniqlo, I’d still head down to Fahrenheit 88. But if I were in KLCC and wanted to see if there were good deals to be had (I picked up a pair of jeans for RM49.90 on sale! Whee!) its a convenient place to pop by for decent casuals 🙂
Did you go for the opening of the Uniqlo KLCC store? It was a Friday so I’m not sure how many people could have made it to get the free tote bag. I don’t think it would be as crazy as the opening of the first store, but who knows eh? If you did go, or were in the area do share your thoughts! 😀
Paris B
Uniqlo KLCC is at Center Concourse of Suria KLCC (opposite Cold Storage)
Love the blazer – it looks great. Wish we had Uniqlo here!
Thank you Sam – I didn’t know there was no Uniqlo in Australia! :O
Nice!
I like the korean fashion. Very smart and pretty! They are all so well dressed and froomed!! When I visited my korean friends in korea, they dressed like they’re going for work! But it’s not too formal. I felt underdressed. Hahaha.
I like that hairstyle too! Trying to grow my hair longer. Hahaha. I snipped, more like chopped off 40% of it.
I must say that in the main, everyone dressed very well, even for just bumming around on weekends. I did try to dress up, but as a tourist and running around, I was still dressed mostly for comfort than style. I was most impressed that the girls could all walk around on heels the whole time! 😯
Yes!!! Plus the sidewalks are like quite hilly at places. Not flat ground! My friend puts plasters at the back of her heels. Another friend, man, Icould see old scars frm blisters at the back of her heel. Hahaha. Salute them!
Oh boy! Old scars and all? I had to salute them too – I was in flat boots and even then my feet were aching by the end of everyday.
Nope, not crazy enough to go on a Friday for a free tote – goodness knows I have plenty collecting dust.
But I did go on Saturday, and the lack of formal and inner wear at the KLCC store was my main gripe too. Didn’t stop me from picking up a few plain coloured tee shirts 😛
Did you have a good deal on the tees? There were some really good deals going on for the opening. I like the fact Uniqlo is available at KLCC but since I don’t go there so often, I don’t see myself shopping there much.
It was okay, by my reckoning – RM24.90 each, which is not bad considering plain cotton tee shirts is over RM30… and these were allegedly the Dry, UV Cut ones, so…
KLCC is more accessible to me because it’s only a train ride away; for me to get to Fahrenheit 88 from PJ is either taking two trains (LRT + Monorail) or drive and pay parking (lucky it’s RM5 flat rate for weekends and public holidays at F88).
That’s quite a deal for the Dry ones. I saw those too but they weren’t on sale when I went.
Guess faren88 still more accessible for me if I were to go uniqlo, can’t bear the thought of expensive parking in klcc ;p
Same here! Parking charges at KLCC kill me everytime!
LOL! I was trying to tempt Bee into getting that exact same blazer here in Singapore… 😛
Seriously?! Tell her to get it! Then she, Connie and I can be blazer triplets! 😀
I think the blazer would look better if the sleeves were folded up a little 😉 I went to the one in Fahrenheit 88 but didn’t realize they had more upstairs…oops @@
Thanks for the tip germaine! 🙂 I love how the lining of the blazer is a lovely striped material that shows up very prettily once the sleeves are folded up 😉 The one at Fahrenheit is huge – 3 floors I think and worth trudging through it all 😉
I didn’t go to Uniqlo KLCC yesterday. Instead, I went to the one right next to the old one, ehehehehe. Get my drift?
Anyways, I do agree that Korean ladies are always well-dressed. Blazers for a day out? If anyone wore it here the reaction would be something like this: Oi, you think Malaysia very hot ah? ^.^
Actually many office ladies here do wear blazers out, just that ours tend to be of lighter material. I do sometimes, when I’m out and about – keeps the modesty when I’m wearing a not so office/work friendly dress, and it isn’t all that hot provided you don’t walk around on the streets hehe 😉 Hope you enjoyed your visit to Sephora. I’m still not going 😛
I love Uniqlo for their basics, especially their bra tops for me 😀 I’ll probably drop by the one in KLCC now that it’s open, I tend to not go during openings because of the crowd and I have legitimate crowd phobia @_@
Ahh… I’ve been wanting to try their bra tops! Everyone I know raves about them to no end. I do hope to find them on sale soon so I can give them a go. 🙂
Now, now, stop tempting me! *rushes off to a nearest Uniqlo*
Hey, at least you have a Uniqlo there… and they probably stock the same blazer! 😀
whee glad you got a great purchase! i didn’t go because the queue in the morning looked daunting enough.
I heard about the queue in the morning! I guess only those who don’t have to work could go and queue – but there are deals going on in store for a few days so perhaps you could still snag a deal on something 🙂
My first Uniqlo exposure is from 8tv Quickie and I thought it is a souvenir store! That’s not my fault cuz the 8tv Quickie were giving away mugs, tote bags, stationery, lol. Now that I read from your post I am interested to check out more from their store.
LOL!! I don’t blame you to be honest 😀 Uniqlo’s a fun place for casuals. You can have an idea why I like the brand from this post 🙂
I went to the KLCC branch today and the opening specials are still ongoing. T-shirts for 24.90, leggings 17.90 and dresses/tops marked down by RM20+. Makes me wish I was skinnier 🙁 Lots of size S available but L, XL mostly gone. The quality of the clothing is pretty good, think it is really like a Gap equivalent. As for which branch I’d go for it would be KLCC as it is much more convenient but the layout and selection at the Fahrenheit one is better.
Oh one thing I hated is the chime of ‘Welcome to Uniqlo’ that all the SAs have to do for each new customer. I wonder how crazy that’ll get on the weekends.
Haha you’re going to hate the “Welcome to XXX” you hear everywhere in many stores in China, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan hehe… I think its just a way of making us feel welcome although you’re right. It does irritate me when I turn a corner and there’s an SA there going “Welcome to Uniqlo!” like a robot 😛