Newmix reinvents Korean mix coffee, a 1970s salon and office staple, as a Seoul souvenir. Inside its shop in Anguk, near Bukchon, and the story behind the brand.

KEYTH, a Seoul K-beauty brand founded in 2023, builds its perfume, skincare and makeup around colour, wit and bold typography. Inside the brand.

Heatherwick Studio led the 2025 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and is now designing Nodeul Island and COEX. This piece covers its plan for a more human Seoul.

London retail designer Sonia Brown photographs Seoul's boldest stores in Seongsu, Hannam, Sinsa and Bukchon, and explains what makes the city's retail design brave.

“There is a real kind of bravery around Seoul, and I absolutely fell in love with it,” she says.

"It felt so different from their UK shops - it was welcoming, not intimidating as many high-end shops can be," she says. She feels that in Seoul, barriers are being broken down through the staff.

"People we met in Korea were more hosts than sales assistants, and there was a sense of hospitality and welcoming," she remembers.

Superbrands come to Seoul to test. It's completely unlike Europe and the UK, which are very restrictive. In Seoul, you can anything.

"A brand can come to Seoul and do whatever they want; there is a kind of artistic licence to do anything," Sonia says. "Something that doesn't exist elsewhere."

IWA runs a distributed village hotel across restored hanoks in Bukchon and Jongno, Seoul. It has century-old rooms and courtyard baths, and the neighbourhood serves as its lobby.