Daring. Decisive. Discerning. These are words that South Korean fashion insider Kim Eun-jeung (EJ Kim), who has helmed several fashion magazines in Seoul, uses to describe shoppers from her home country.

‘I think fashion is in our DNA,’ says Kim, who currently runs K-Style Lab, a pop-up store in Hong Kong introducing the latest Korean fashion labels. ‘I see customers from all kinds of backgrounds every day and I can say that Koreans usually choose items that are of the now.’

A walk through Seoul reveals the country’s fashion sense. Men, women and children wear carefully assembled outfits – bold yet balanced, colourful but tasteful, masculine mixed with feminine – often with all the right accessories, hairstyles and makeup to complement. Streetwear has long been South Korea’s strength, after all.