In Seoul’s Seongdong neighborhood, Gentle Monster and IICOMBINED have inaugurated the fourth location of their Haus Nowhere stores. Following Dosan, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, this latest outpost is part of the Future Retail project, launched in 2021 to give shape to a new vision of hyper-conceptual and explicitly futuristic retail spaces.
From the outside, Haus Nowhere Seoul asserts itself as a true urban landmark, with its 14 floors and a sci-fi inspired architecture. Inside, however, the shopping experience becomes far less conventional—closer to a surreal journey through a post-human, science-fiction universe that echoes the cyberpunk atmospheres of Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner. As its name suggests, this is a place that “exists nowhere,” free to blur the boundaries between fashion and culture and to redefine the very idea of purchasing.
Each Haus Nowhere revolves around a specific curatorial theme—Seoul’s concept is “The Future Returned”—but all four locations operate as fragments of a broader, shared philosophy. Haus Nowhere does not aim to create mere images, but rather cinematic universes interconnected in their narrative approach to retail.
A Seongdong, this vision unfolds through a vertical journey that brings together the group’s various brands: Gentle Monster with its eyewear, Tamburins with perfumes and body care, Atiissu with headwear, Nudake with experimental patisserie, and the new tableware brand Nuflaat. Among these, it is the standalone Tamburins flagship that has gone viral on social media, thanks to its peculiar installation featuring robots, spatial furnishings, and above all a monumental sculpture of a sleeping dachshund wearing a gleaming adornment that moves its nose and ears when touched.
The opening event further underlined the global scope of the project, with an international line-up of celebrities in attendance. The launch gathered actors and musicians from across the world, including South Korean actor Byeon Woo-seok, Felix of Stray Kids, and Kentaro Sakaguchi, as well as Tilda Swinton—star of Gentle Monster’s new campaign—FKA twigs, Anne Curtis, Hunter Schafer, and MEOVV Ella Gross.
Opening image: Tamburins Haus Nowhere Seoul © Tamburins