GENTLE MONSTER’s 2024 Gentle High School Optical Collection at Seoul Dosan Park
ⓒ GENTLE MONSTER
I feel like very few people interested in experiential retail haven't heard of GENTLE MONSTER, so I decided their Seoul Dosan Park flagship store was the next thing I wanted to check out. I took a dear friend with me to make it extra fun, and that's exactly the mood I was in when we left after almost an hour of exploration. You can check out Gentle Monster's website for more info about the brand, so I'll just share my findings and impressions from the retail experience:
The flagship store has 5 floors: B1 for the Nudake Cafe, the Lounge – perfect for collection-themed installations, then three floors for Gentle Monster, and the final floor for the beauty brand Tamburins.
Apart from Tamburins – which, despite clearly being part of the family, is its own independent brand – and the coffee shop, the Lounge and Gentle Monster sections were dedicated to the eyewear brand's newest 2024 Gentle High School Optical Collection.
No matter the collection, the brand story feels very cohesive and the provided experience is top-notch. It's innovative, fun, well-thought-out, and immersive. It's always at least slightly futuristic, sophisticated, succinct, and somewhat minimalistic even when the brand goes 'all out' – though it might sound like an oxymoron, that's exactly how it feels.
Each floor has a slightly different take on the theme adding to the diversity of the experience
Immersive experience is the key word here, always has been. The staff will offer very kind service if needed, but mostly people are there to just explore on their own, and there's no commercial pressure. Client Advisors are the keepers of the space and contribute to the coolness factor with their strong personal aura.
The price and product name tags have a QR code for a seamless omnichannel experience – the code leads to the product page, where you can click to learn more about the story. Once you do that, you will get a KakaoTalk (Korean king of messaging apps) message with a link to the brand website where you can browse the full collection and check out a special page dedicated to the theme. You also get a message with the details of the specific product you scanned plus a link to purchase it online.
The brand knows how to engage customers – lots of space for fun photos, with school uniforms to try on, and special equipment to print a Gentle High School student ID card (LOVED IT!). You take a photo of yourself wearing the uniform and a pair of glasses from the collection, and bam, the card is printed within seconds. Just the most brilliant idea ever and such a fun souvenir.
I will post a separate review of the Tamburins store, but the quality of the experience was very much in line with what Gentle Monster offers; the Nudake coffee shop was very on-brand too.
What was your experience with/impression of Gentle Monster? I know I went to a store, but honestly, it feels like I just visited a really fun place, and it only made me love the brand even more.
