Right in front of the famed Ewha Women’s University is an area called Edae 이대 which is a cluster of small shops weaving and twisting through many streets around the campus front gates. 

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Edae University was founded in 1866 by the American Missionary Mary Scranton,  today it is considered one of the top schools in Korea to attend along with Seoul University.  It is a very trendy area with a range of tastes and styles, and since its right next to the popular Hongdae and Shinchon university stations (the trend trinity!) it is a given that this area is usually packed with younger people shopping and having a good time on the weekend.

Edae’s main street in the early morning, filled with students heading to class.

Edae has its fair share of the usual Korean brand makeup shops and chains scattered around, but the main characteristics of this area are the range of affordable girls clothing in VERY modern, feminine, or earthy/hippie-style/relaxed styles.  Yes, if you want to be up with the latest looks this is a great place to shop and grab what you need fairly cheaply!

Edae’s side shopping streets (to the LEFT of the main street) in the early morning before the masses flood in.

The streets are small, crammed, and weave in every direction so its fun to explore and things are always changing. This is my favorite place to wander around because you just never know what you will find, and chances are you may not see it again if you pass it up!

If I am looking for a current trend in magazines this is one of the best places to find it first and for a cheap price!

Currently the big trend is pastel colors and shirts with collars + ribbons!

The large AM PM building in the very center (its hard to miss it on your left as you walk down the road towards the school) is also a booth style shopping mecca that is common here, but honestly I find most things inside to be a bit overpriced or uninteresting compared to the street shopping.  This branch is suffering like many of the others outside Dongdaemoon, they are filled with more empty booths VS full nowadays, but occasionally an owner will have a nice sale rack or two so its worth poking around.

Edae is about the street shopping and small closet sized boutique shops though, so keep that in mind if you are short on time!

Behind the AM PM you will find that it is a lot quieter, this is where the more unique styled shops and vintage stores tend to cluster!  They also have a large amount of foreign-run mini shops selling Indian clothing and the like, woven bags, wraps, and other styles that must have a market here because several of these shops are there…Not quite my taste, its VERY granola and hemp looking.

The back street shops are off the busy path and great places to find badges and awesome bracelets!

These side roads also have some larger piercing shops, more punk or edgy accessories, and some men’s clothing stores~ although the boys clothing shops are also scattered though Edea’s busy main streets as well of you look!

Men’s clothing can be a tad overpriced here in terms of quality for what they are asking, but sadly it is a common issue in Korea so just use your best judgement!

The style for men is casual, urban, and we have found several sharp jackets here for about 80,000 won! In fact, if anything~ for guys this is a great place to look for unique jackets.  You will not get them for cheap, but you are paying for the style ♥ This is one of Nara’s favorite place to shop.

Haggling used to be a lot easier in this area 10 years ago, now they are a lot more firm with prices + most stores just refuse unless its a small little place dealing with cash usually.  As a tourist, don’t even bother unless you are buying shoes (maybe bags from bag shops), or shopping in a smaller street shop and buying a several things.  They get lots of traffic and don’t want to bother bargaining with you unless you plan to spend a lot~ even then they only knock a$ or two off so its almost not worth the debate… seriously, is it worth saving $2 on a $70 thing? Save your energy~ Overall the prices are already quite low here so the markup is not always insanely bad since even though its a common tourist spot, Korean students still shop here a lot and are the majority.

Sale table outside with great deals~ $10 shoes / 10,000 won

This is my favorite shop for cheap shoes in Edae.. well they are cheap AFTER I get the price down.

(lol have I captured the tone of haggle friendly shops well enough with this pic?)

Shoes is something I always tend to haggle for here though, but only at specific shoe shops that I will revisit in another post because once you get used to seeing them they are easy to identify~ for beginners, generally they are run by middle-aged men, have LOTS of choices piled up, and have no visible prices.

Another large shoe shop with lots of pretties!!!

Shoes in Edae are hardly EVER worth over 50,000 Won (unless its a boutique shoe or something)  but some haggle-vender places will try and get 90,000+ from you for a short boot or shoe when you first ask!  If you stick to it , about 30,000 – 40,000 won ($30-$40) is an ideal price for a nice shoe in that area, but you can also find plenty that are much cheaper and adorable shoes for 10,000 won if you just keep an eye out for sales or sale tables.

 If you buy several pairs you can REALLY haggle prices down, but just one pair is going to require a little playing with prices.

Things with prices marked clearly are generally already on sale, so don’t ask to make it cheaper.

These are shoes from a small shop boutique meaning the style is most likely unique to that shop, limited in number, or hard to come by.. so even if the quality is not leather or anything fancy you can expect a higher price point and they will hardly ever haggle with you.

Clothing prices vary here, but generally for girls they are quite cheap!  Most racks are FILLED with things in the 5,000-20,000 won range ($5-$20) fancy shirts or tops can go for a bit more though.  I usually expect prices from 10,000-40,000 won on clothing items when I look at the tag, since its an area for students they keep the costs reasonable.  The cheap racks are great places to get trendy pieces or basics for layering!

Edae also has many unique boutique-style stores that are not as cheap as the mass-rack shops, but are the ones that you can usually find something extra pretty or special! Its not the *quite* same flavor or brand fame, but it reminds me of a lot of the little special shops you find in Harajuku in Japan. These shops have items made special for them or things have been thoughtfully selected based on the store theme and style/taste they are appealing to.

Accessories are another amazing find in this area if you look closely and wonder a bit away from the main streets.  Several ADORABLE shops are in this area with handmade pieces that are little works of art, its like having etsy.com sellers right in front of you.  Often they are similar to the things you can buy from the larger stores, but customized or hand-crafted to make them extra pretty.   I will feature some of these soon in a separate post in greater detail for sure.

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Aside from the more detailed handmade shops you can also find plenty of inexpensive accessories shops that carry any clip, hair bow, coin purse, or ring that you could ever need~ usually for 10,000 won or less.

Demon Hair is one of the more popular places to get cheap extensions here

A very noticeable thing as you wander the streets of Edae is the amount of hair salons and nail salons they have on some streets, are you very surprised though?  It is a girls university area!!  Edae has some of the more trendy hair salons and has dozens of places that offer hair extenshions for very low cost… but sadly this is only if you have black or dark brown hair usually, I found specials for about 100,000 won ($100) a head some weeks but they never have blonde in stock.

Most trendy girls I run into with unique hair usually reply that they had it done in Edae when I ask, and every salon is usually busy with young crowds getting trendy haircuts and perms~ no Ajuma here!

The main road as you walk towards the college usually has assorted Korean street food, these vendors are usually really good!  I have not had a bad stick of street food yet in this area, you don’t mess around with college kids I guess haha.  Giant Kabobs, Egg Bread, spicy ricecakes~

XXX PHOTO OF STICK SWEETS NEEDED XXX

for something sweet you should try the coated strawberries that this area is famous for!

Sit down places are scattered through the area, mainly on the very back road closest to the school or quieter side streets.   Its quite a range of lower cost student food in this area since that is the main demand~  Tonkatsu, kimbap, spaghetti, ramen, curry, and a few chains like Dunkin Doughnuts, Quiznos, Sorrento, etc ♥ plus a slew of cafes of course.  I love the curry you can get here, they have several delicious Japanese-style curry places worth stopping by for sure + Marron crepes made with yummy fresh cream!

CLICK HERE FOR MUST VISIT SHOPS IN EDAE (link to be updated later with image)

Don’t bother getting an early start at Edae, it sleeps in!

Because Edae caters to the college crowd it picks up as the day goes on and people get out of class.  Don’t bother coming here in the morning before 11am at least, its empty and most shops are still opening… even on the weekend.  By Noon-1pm things are starting to come alive, shops have open, people are coming in, street vendors are cooking up the food, and the sale racks have been pushed outside.  During certain times of the year you will notice more tourists VS others, lots of Japanese and Chinese shoppers who mainly stick to the main roads.

Assuming you are not too far outside Seoul, getting to Edae/ Ewha Woman’s University is VERY easy because its right on the metro line!  Line #2 aka the green line is the oval shaped route that runs through the center of Seoul in a big circle.  Just get on the green line using the best route possible and ride the green in the correct direction ^^

When you arrive at the metro station you want to look for exits #1 or 2~ those will let you out right around the main street which will lead downhill towards the university.