Dongdaemun vintage shop Guess puffer haul after Dongmyo flea market

My wife and I spent a weekend wandering the Dongmyo flea market, checking out all sorts of vintage brand stalls and secondhand street shops, grabbing a nice lunch and doing a bit of shopping. Afterward I wanted to find a more neatly organized vintage shop, so I searched around and found Viva Trade Eulji Dundaun Dongdaemun Branch, a vintage specialty brand near Dongmyo!

Dundaun Dongdaemun Mall, right outside exits 11 and 12 of Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station on Line 2, is a huge mall housing everything from Daiso to various clothing brands and vintage shops. Viva Trade Eulji is on the 5th floor of Dundaun Dongdaemun, and with 2 hours of free parking, we could comfortably browse all sorts of premium overseas vintage brands and shop at a relaxed pace. Here's our haul report after slowly looking around with my wife.

Viva Trade Eulji Dundaun Dongdaemun: location, hours and parking

• Location: 264 Eulji-ro, 5th floor, Jung-gu, Seoul
• Hours: Daily 10:30 - 21:00
• Parking: 2 hours free at Dundaun Dongdaemun branch

Where to park at Dundaun Dongdaemun Mall

We were able to park on the 4th basement level of Dundaun Dongdaemun Mall, and the spaces were much roomier than expected. After paying pricey parking fees to browse the Dongmyo flea market, the thought of 2 hours free parking plus a relaxed browse through the mall already put my mind at ease.

The building has a mix of brand stores like ABC Mart, Daiso, Ashley Queens, 8seconds, and Mixxo. We headed for our destination — Viva Trade on the 5th floor — by elevator.

A 5th-floor vintage floor tidier than Dongmyo flea market

Stepping off the elevator, Skechers was right there on the right, so I walked straight ahead and saw what looked like a blue carpet laid across the floor

leading to a large, eye-catching clothing store. That was Viva Trade Eulji Dundaun Dongdaemun Branch.

The boundary between the store and the outside corridor was marked with such stylish interior design that my eyes were drawn in even before entering. Whoever did the interior clearly had great taste.

Even from outside the store, I could see so many vividly colored clothes and pieces from various overseas global brands that I was honestly a bit surprised. I started worrying whether we'd manage to see it all within the 2-hour free parking window.

Walking along the border between the corridor and Viva Trade, browsing the vintage clothes, I noticed each section had a different brand and different discount rate. There was also a guide map for Viva Trade Eulji.

Domestic vintage brands 20% off, vintage goods also 20% off, Polo & high-end brands 20% off, premium brands 30% off. The sections were very meticulously divided. What I liked most was this: street vintage stalls near Dongmyo often have items that fall short in quality. On this trip around Dongmyo, there were plenty of clean shops, but also quite a few that weren't, plus inconvenient parking. Viva Trade, by contrast, is set up for comfortable browsing in a clean mall, and I heard they even launder the clothes before displaying them. That point alone won me over.

LP listening, Hello Kitty goods and vintage Apple gear

Walking into the Viva Trade entrance, the first thing that caught my eye was an LP player along with all kinds of old LPs.

There were rare, hard-to-find LPs as well as more common ones — quite a variety. The foreign visitor sitting next to me seemed to have found what he was after, holding three LPs in his hand.

I don't have an LP player at home, so I just sat and listened to some music on theirs before getting up to look for more vintage pieces.

All sorts of Hello Kitty vintage goods were also on sale at 20% off. It looked like a lot of them were brought straight from Japan, and there were plenty of goods you don't see in Korea. Women in particular kept drifting toward this section — haha.

Besides Kitty, there was Coca-Cola merch and all sorts of anime goods, so I spent about 20 minutes here too, browsing around haha.

After looking around the Kitty section, I moved on toward the premium high-end vintage area and found quite a lot of vintage Apple items too. iPods and various other Apple products were on display, and they were available at 20% off, so

I think anyone who loves Apple gear would spend a lot of time in this area too.

How much is the discount? Tag holes and section signs explained

There were plenty of overseas vintage pieces from Nike, Adidas, and other brands not sold domestically hanging around, and because of that, brands I'd normally just walk past for being too common somehow made me stop and look twice. I think that's the appeal of vintage. Even when I traveled to the US and tried to buy a few things at a Polo store, the quality felt lacking so I passed — it was strange to find vintage Polo pieces here in much better condition despite being the same brand.

And the most important thing, of course, is the discount rate. Each section has its rate posted above it, but if you look closely at the clothing tags, you'll notice an extra hole punched on the right side. I was told that one marks a 30% discount.

A jacket that would cost around ₩380,000 in Japan could be picked up cheaply here at the vintage shop — if you take the time to search carefully, you can score good pieces for a lot less.

The find: a Guess short puffer for 31,200 won

With summer wrapping up and fall/winter approaching, I thought a light short puffer would be nice for my wife, so I started browsing

and I also noticed 5 well-kept fitting rooms, which was a nice touch. After browsing a while, we landed on this Guess short puffer jacket. Unlike the photo, it looked even cleaner in person, with no damage, and the padding inside felt nice and plush.

Priced at ₩39,000, but with 20% off we got it for ₩31,200.

The staff were busy ironing shirts and keeping everything tidy. They packaged our item nicely and we headed home. We were trying to time our browsing to fit the 2-hour free parking window, so it felt a bit rushed. Personally, I think spending 3-4 hours just at Viva Trade would turn up quite a few more good finds.

Is Viva Trade Eulji Dundaun Dongdaemun worth the trip?

When I think of Dongdaemun malls, I remember the old Migliore days with the scary touts hawking clothes — a place I avoided ever since high school. Now, instead of that, there are shops like this one, clean and well-organized, featuring both overseas and domestic vintage brands, making it worth a visit again.

There's also the famous Dongmyo flea market about 10 minutes away, but browsing there can be pretty draining. Personally, I found Viva Trade Eulji Dundaun Dongdaemun Branch a much calmer place to shop. The staff were so kind even while busy that I'd love to come back next time I get the chance haha. When it comes to vintage, Dongmyo is great, but Viva Trade at Dundaun Dongdaemun Mall is definitely worth it too.