© REFYND STUDIO / Photography: Hanbit Kim

South Korean high-end streetwear brand Thug Club was founded in 2018 by Young-min Cho, a graduate of the Seoul Institute of Arts‘ fashion programme. Since its inception, the brand has resonated especially well with the hiphop community on home turf, but has also been picked up a number of leading stars overseas, further boosting its popularity. Banking on its success, Thug Club has taken its operations to a new level by opening a flagship store at home base Seoul. The streetwear brand has secured a ground floor space of a modern structure in the city’s Itaewon district and tapped local design practice REFYND STUDIO to create a matching interior design. The chosen design codes is based on Cho’s fantastical hunch of ‘a castle in the middle of the desert’ while also pondering of wanting an element of ‘hell’ embedded in the design. This has resulted in a stately façade with classic mouldings, adorned with wall-mounted metal light fixtures in the form of medieval torches.

Additionally, the Thug Club brand’s stylised initials are prominently featured on it in shiny metal. Mind you, they even define the shape of the large entrance door. Inside, light timber flooring and light-coloured stuccoed walls form the backdrop of pitch black furnishings and fixtures. Right opposite the entrance sits the sales counter, flanked on both sides by circular gates which on the side of the sales counter see four speakers embedded. The smaller side room is merely furnished with a single floor-to-ceiling black timber display adorned with studs featuring the aforementioned initials. A coffin-inspired black box in the corner houses a fitting room. The bigger side room features another ornate clothing display, here it’s sort of combined with a semi-detached cabinets, while the opposite bay window is occupied by a suspended clothing rack. The new Thug Club carries the brand’s full range of apparel, accessories, shoes, home objects, and collaborative items. © superfuture

Thug Club
46 Hoenamu-ro (Itaewon)
04346 Seoul
Telephone +82 50 713570228
Tue-Sun 1pm-9pm

© REFYND STUDIO / Photography: Hanbit Kim