tales from Korea

You’ll be spoilt for choice when shopping in Korea, that is, as long as your size is pretty small and you have a similar build to a Korean. For men, I think it may be a little easier as some Korean men can be pretty big – comparable to a normal western man. But for everyone else, having a slightly oversized romp, being extra tall or having a wide chest can mean giving up on high street shopping and going instead for some specialist shopping in Itaewon.

I’m 178cm, pretty normal, I’m not a very big guy, but have quite wide shoulders and a wide chest – I am XL everywhere in Korea, and at that the XL barely fits. By the way, they don’t really have the American style XXL XXXL type sizes in Korean stores – XL is the biggest. For top sizes, I look for the Korean “105″ which is generally the biggest size, and it fits me just about. Pants, jeans ect are a little easier, you can get them pretty easily up to 36″ waist – but most of them have a fixed length (Or they just say ‘normal’ or ‘longer’). If you’re a rather tall fellow – you’ll probably have to head off to Itaewon. I know quite a few westerners who don’t really get any clothes in Korea, they have to haul it all from their home country.

When I go shopping for clothes, I have a quick checklist which goes from the most important (Practicality) to the least important (Style). Pretty much everything I buy has to fulfil these criteria, but if one point weights heavily above the point below it, I may still get it. For example, if something was really damn comfortable, even if it was expensive, I’d probably get it. This may all sound a bit pretentious or something, but really it’s just my priority when buying clothes. Like most men, I couldn’t care, but I still have the inbuilt strict money sense from being a student for so long. Here’s the list:

• Practicality
• An item should have a purpose and be build well for that purpose, it should be practical and useful.
• Comfort
• It should be comfortable to wear and not cause any pain even with extended use*.
• Cost
• It should be reasonably priced – Build quality and materials equal to a fair price**.
• Style
• It should look good, and not just be made for a current fashion trend but be good for a while.

* This is why high heels fail the test (Obviously for girls!).
** Most designer labels you’re paying for the brand over the quality of the product hence that’s why i don’t buy any.

Yeah, you all know how anal I am.

The three shops I’m going to recommend which provide what I need with those requirements are Giordano, UNIQLO and Basic House. By the way, I’m not being sponsored, this is just my opinion.

Giordano is great for casual clothing, I like their simple but attractive styles. Their jumpers are neat: Round necks and hoodies, in a variety of colours so you can easily match to taste. They have some really high quality shirts too; a little pricey mind, but they’re really nice. I do wear some of the shirts for school, and none have ever shrunk in the wash. I’ve never bought any pants here, but I did buy a very nice long jacket that was on sale (-40%) because it was last seasons fashion.

UNIQLO is one of all my all round favourite shops – It’s actually a Japanese company. Check out their pants and jeans – they usually have some formal ones good for school and some casual ones good for outside school. They regularly run sale events and you can usually pick up a genuine bargain there. I’ve bought jumpers for school, great underwear, Thermal pants, Jeans and other things there. Very good prices for the quality, I’ve generally found. There is a huge UNIQLO in the 명동 (Myeongdong) shopping area.

Basic House is another good all rounder. They have a lot of clothes that are good for school wearing – cotton pants, ‘teacher’ style jumpers and a lot of decent shirts. I’ve found the quality to be a bit hit and miss, but it’s still a shop worth checking out. Prices are a bit odd too – Some things are very well priced while others seem arbitrarily high. Sometimes they have very fashionable clothes in one section and in the other they have very basic and generic universal styles.

There are a few other places worth checking out, but these three seem to be the best for western male teachers buying clothes in Korea, in my opinion.