Haus Nowhere in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, on the 4th. Upon reaching the store entrance, a giant broccoli character sleeping with a small onion perched on its head caught the eye. Stepping inside, instead of typical product displays, characters shaped like eggplants, turnips, and mushrooms filled the front view as if they had sprouted up through the soil. In front of a photo booth set up on one side, a line of visitors waiting to create their own character cards stretched out, while foreign tourists passing by stopped in their tracks and repeatedly raised their phones to take photos.
Gentle Monster, the eyewear brand operated by IICOMBINED, is launching 10 items in its "Veggie Collection" and simultaneously opening pop-up stores in six cities worldwide, including Seoul's Seongsu, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Bangkok, and New York. The Veggie Collection is an eyewear line that reinterprets the "Farm Girl Core" trend, which has recently been gaining attention in the global fashion and lifestyle market, through Gentle Monster's own sensibility. It features organic forms and witty details inspired by various vegetables such as tomatoes and bell peppers.
The flagship product, "Radi 02," applies clear, yellow, and brown tinted lenses to a refined round metal frame. The temples feature curved details reminiscent of plant stems along with tomato stalk decorations. It drew attention when aespa's Karina wore it in the campaign, and it received such high interest that it quickly sold out right after the pre-order opened. The "Toffee 02," inspired by bell peppers, emphasizes a stronger individuality with an irregular curved frame and colored lenses in green and pink. All products are designed with a folding structure where the temples and frame fold, enhancing portability.
The pop-up space was infused with Gentle Monster's signature universe marketing. Centered around large vegetable character objects rendered in a fuzzy yarn texture, tomato-shaped props and palm-sized Veggiemon figures were placed throughout the product displays. This kind of composition, which emphasizes spatial experience as well as the products themselves, is a core strategy of Gentle Monster, which has consistently presented "experimental retail." Customers who purchase products from this collection receive a pouch dedicated to folding eyewear, and Veggiemon key chains are also given out on a first-come, first-served basis.
A Gentle Monster official said, "This collection is compact folding eyewear that reinterprets the forms and colors of vegetables with our distinctive wit," adding, "We will continue to present products with experimental and refined aesthetics through various variations."
