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Musinsa enters China with two Shanghai stores, banking on K-fashion's global appeal

Published: 19 Dec. 2025, 18:27 Updated: 19 Dec. 2025, 18:42

CHO YONG-JUN
[email protected]

Musinsa Store in Anfu Road in Shanghai [MUSINSA]

Musinsa, Korea's largest fashion e-commerce platform by revenue, has chosen China as its first overseas foothold, opening two stores in Shanghai.

The Seoul-based operator opened its Musinsa Store Shanghai Anfu Road on Friday, just five days after it opened Musinsa Standard Shanghai at the Parkson department store in Huaihai Road.

The fashion retailer aims to open a total of 100 brick-and-mortar stores in China in the next five years, and will be opening Musinsa Standard branches at the Shanghai New World Daimaru department store, Xujiahui area and in Hangzhou by 2026.

The difference between the two brick-and-mortar stores is that the Musinsa Store sells clothing and fashion items from Korean and local brands, while Musinsa Standard focuses on the retailer’s private-label brand, set to compete with fast fashion brands like Zara and H&M.

The Anfu Road store is located in a 100-year-old, three-story historic building. Anfu Road, located in the former Shanghai French Concession area in central Shanghai, features European style historic buildings and different fashion stores.

Musinsa explained that the Anfu Road region, which it described as “a street like Seongsu-dong in Korea where fashionable people and influencers gather,” was a suitable location for the overseas brick-and-mortar Musinsa Store.

The fashion retailer has long been a popular shopping stop not just for Korean customers, but also for foreign travelers and global customers. The transaction numbers for Musinsa's global store rose by 2.5 times in the last year.

The store will have a total of 59 clothing and fashion brands, of which 44 are Korean brands and 15 are Chinese and global sports brands.

“Centered around Korean fashion brands, we are also introducing localized Chinese brands so Chinese customers can meet K-fashion alongside familiar brands,” Musinsa said in a press release.

The first floor of the Musinsa Store at Anfru Road is dedicated as a pop-up zone, where mini pop-up stores featuring different trends and concepts will be rotated constantly, with Musinsa Closet being the first pop-up experience. Musinsa Closet will feature brands like Rock Cake, Osoi, Insilence, Scuptor, Treemingbird and Fennec, which have proven to be popular among Chinese customers in Musinsa’s stores in Korea.

The second floor will feature clothes and fashion items from the curated brands, while the upper floor will have a dedicated K-pop zone that is designed to showcase clothes worn by K-pop idols. Clothes worn by boy band Enhypen’s Sunghoon — Musinsa China’s official ambassador — will be displayed for the first month of the store's opening.

Musinsa Standard store in Shanghai at the Parkson department store[MUSINSA]

Musinsa Standard’s first physical store in Shanghai — and its first store outside Korea — is located two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the Musinsa Store, near the South Shanxi Road station of the Shanghai Metro. Spanning two floors of the Parkson department store, the shop takes up approximately 15,300 square feet.

Musinsa Standard store in Shanghai [MUSINSA]

The store features all kinds of clothing items from Musinsa Standard, from basic clothes to casual wear and classic outfits, according to the company. Notably, its City Leisure Hooded Light Down Jacket is displayed as the star of the show, which sold out in under a minute when Musinsa Standard’s Tmall online store in October.

The brand first launched in 2017 and has experienced rapid growth over the years in Korea, with 33 stores nationwide. Musinsa Standard also recorded 400 billion won ($270 million) in transactions from January to November this year. Notably, it sold 1.01 million smart trousers and 150,000 outdoor down jackets.

Musinsa Standard store in Shanghai [MUSINSA]

BY CHO YONG-JUN [[email protected]]