The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it hosted “2026 F/W Seoul Fashion Week” from Tuesday, February 3 through Sunday, February 8, across the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) area, recording 1,772 business consultations and purchase-order consultations worth $7.54 million, with 99 buyers from 23 countries participating.

In particular, this season is credited with introducing a “one-site” model that consolidated key programs—fashion shows, presentations, trade shows, and forums—into a single venue at DDP, establishing a business-centered fashion week model in which show viewing and business consultations are organically connected. Operating the trade show across the entire DDP Design Lab (Floors 1–4) and designing a systematic flow increased buyers’ dwell time and boosted the density of meetings, continuing the expansion trend as the scale of purchase-order consultations rose once again compared with the previous season.

The trade show ran for three days at the DDP Design Lab, where purchase-order consultations between overseas buyers and Korean brands were concentrated. This season’s purchase-order consultation total of $7.54 million exceeds the previous season (26 S/S) figure of $7.45 million; in recent years, the scale has steadily expanded—$6.13 million (25 S/S) → $6.71 million (25 F/W) → $7.45 million (26 S/S) → $7.54 million (26 F/W).

#24 collections, about 70,000 cumulative viewers…Proving the competitiveness of K-fashion content on the DDP runway

This season unveiled a total of 24 collections (15 runway shows and nine presentations). About 12,000 people visited in person, while online livestreams and digital content drew about 64,000 views, bringing total on- and offline viewership to roughly 70,000. This indicates that Seoul Fashion Week’s stage is expanding beyond physical space to digital platforms, broadening touchpoints for domestic and international audiences to experience K-fashion.

This season also concentrated runway shows and presentations across DDP, elevating content quality through staging that fused each space’s characteristics with brand identity. Art Hall 1, the main venue, maximized each collection’s narrative with large LED panels and three-dimensional stage design, while Art Hall 2 and the Igansumun Exhibition Hall created presentation environments where audiences could experience collections up close.

Kwak Hyun Joo Collection, ULKIN, and LIE, among others, heightened on-site immersion with stages combining celebrity models with music and performance, and LIE by designer Lee Chung Chung drew praise from overseas buyers for a collection that blended high functionality with fashion appeal. This content competitiveness led to concentrated coverage by the international press and major fashion trade outlets, underscoring Seoul’s growing presence on the global fashion scene.

#Partnership with Milan Fashion Week gains momentum through the Global Meet-up program

The Global Meet-up program, operated during the event, became an opportunity to strengthen global networks through substantive exchanges between overseas distribution and concept-store professionals and designers. By linking with Milan’s fashion ecosystem, participating Seoul Fashion Week brands gained local exposure and held joint presentations—results that go beyond a short-term event to build a foundation for mid- to long-term collaboration.

Notably, Claudio Antonioli—the head of a Milan-based high-end concept store—visited Korea to coincide with the opening of Seoul Fashion Week, attended the opening show, and, in a Meet-up session with 15 participating designers, shared each brand’s creative philosophy along with practical advice for establishing themselves in global markets—creating a concrete bridge for collaboration between Seoul and Milan.

These exchanges immediately led to follow-up results in Milan. In late February, during Milan Fashion Week, a joint presentation featuring five Seoul Fashion Week brands—▴AMOMENTO ▴BESFXXK ▴Daily Mirror ▴JADENCHO ▴KIMHĒKIM—was held at Antonioli, a mecca of high-end fashion. With strong interest from local fashion industry figures and media, the event is generating both B2B (business-to-business) outcomes for global buyers and B2C (business-to-consumer) value by engaging directly with local consumers to raise brand awareness. The B2C pop-up inside the Antonioli store will run through March 10.

#Seoul Fashion Forum held for the second time; a new public session introduced this year…On-the-ground proposals sharpen K-fashion strategy

Held alongside the opening of Seoul Fashion Week, the “2026 Seoul Fashion Forum” added a new “public session” open to all citizens, creating a venue that shares industry discourse with the broader public in addition to industry-focused discussions. A total of 538 people participated, with speakers offering practical proposals centered on the competitiveness and growth strategies K-fashion must secure amid structural stagnation in the global fashion market.

Where last year’s forum operated as a professional session mainly for industry stakeholders, this year it was run in two tracks—an “industry session” for in-depth discourse and a “public session” that built resonance with general participants such as citizens and students—securing both expertise and broader reach.

In the keynote address, Jon Gimpel, Country Manager of LOEWE Korea, assessed that the global fashion market is in a phase of structural stagnation and shifting consumer conditions, and suggested that future growth should be pursued by strengthening design identity and the brand experience. He also noted that consumer trends are moving from product ownership toward experience and meaning, and said K-fashion—with its digital fluency and cultural sensibility—has significant room to be competitive in global markets.

In the public session, Vunque CEO Seok Jeong-hye spoke as a presenter, sharing her experiences from the brand’s growth journey. By delivering real cases and practical advice spanning entrepreneurship, branding, and global expansion, she built deep rapport with the audience.

In the subsequent public-session talk, participants shared the on-the-ground view that changes driven by AI and the digital environment are reshaping creativity and the overall ways brands scale. Kim Do-hoon, Creative Director of Andersson Bell, said AI is not a technology that replaces design but a tool that expands the brand experience, while Jeon In-yong, CTO of CLO Virtual Fashion, emphasized that the ability to use AI as a means to complement and extend creativity will be a key factor in future practical competitiveness.

Forum attendees commented that “the Seoul Fashion Forum is functioning as a ‘strategic platform’ that goes beyond simply introducing trends to share the direction and practical strategies K-fashion should pursue amid changes in the global market.” This shows that Seoul Fashion Week is expanding from a runway-centered event into a comprehensive fashion platform that also produces industry strategy and future-facing discourse.

#All-around collaboration with Naver…Expanding a platform model that combines content and commerce

Building on the previous season, Seoul Fashion Week further solidified its partnership with Naver, strengthening its digital scalability. The collaboration is seen as moving beyond simple on-site broadcasts to a platform-style partnership that organically combines content and commerce, expanding touchpoints with the public in a more multidimensional way.

This season, a total of 70 Naver Clip creators roamed the venue, reinterpreting the energy of the runway shows and a variety of side programs into stylish short-form content, producing about 1,400 pieces in total—from collection highlights and on-site sketches to brand experience booths. This led online buzz, logging a cumulative roughly 40 million views (as of 2/23). The assessment is that a content-distribution structure centered on digital platforms has taken shape beyond the limits of physical space.

In addition, the Naver booth operated in DDP’s Eoullim Square presented a curated market featuring a carefully selected lineup of participating brands, running brand promotion and actual sales simultaneously. Through an integrated online-offline commerce experiment—linking on-site brand experiences to purchases on Naver Brand Store—the event confirmed the potential for expansion as a business model.

On site, operations took weather conditions into account, and hands-on programs were prepared so citizens could experience fashion and beauty technologies. To prepare for subzero temperatures, cold-weather vinyl structures were installed at the experience booths in Eoullim Square, minimizing inconvenience for visitors.

At the B the B booth, visitors were offered one-on-one personalized makeup consultations based on AI skin diagnostics and personal color analysis, while the Evoto X SMDV booth ran a photo event using professional shooting equipment and AI retouching technology, enabling citizens to directly experience the process of creating digital fashion content.

Despite operational constraints due to weather conditions, Seoul Fashion Week provided opportunities for citizens to feel the convergence of fashion and technology through experiential content, and plans to continue expanding touchpoints for communication with the public while addressing environmental factors going forward.

Lee Soo-yeon, Director General of Seoul’s Economic Policy Office, said, “By concentrating the event at DDP, Seoul Fashion Week is improving the efficiency of runway viewing and business programs and making a step up as a business platform that supports K-fashion brands’ global expansion,” adding, “We will continue to strengthen our industry, global, and digital strategies so Seoul can establish itself as Asia’s leading fashion business hub.”