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Hanbok, Fabric and Vintage at Gwangjang Market: What Reviews Report

Travel Analysts

📄Half of Gwangjang Market sells cloth, not food. What 84 reviews report on buying a hanbok, the fabric shops and the vintage floor that is often closed.

Clothing racks and hanging dreamcatchers and trinkets at a market stall in Seoul, with shoppers walking along the street behind

💡Quick Answer

Can you buy a hanbok at Gwangjang Market? Yes. In our sample of 1,458 reviews, 34 mention hanbok there and six reviewers describe buying one, all satisfied. Five mention made-to-measure tailoring and four place the hanbok shops on the second floor. Fifty reviews mention the fabric trade, and seven note that half the market is textiles, not food. Twelve mention the vintage clothing shops, and three of those found most of them closed. We did not verify prices or hours.

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Half of Gwangjang Market Is Not Food

Gwangjang Market is reviewed as a place to eat, and a good part of it sells cloth. Eighty-four of the 1,458 reviews in our sample mention the other half: hanbok, fabric and sewing supplies, or vintage clothing. We read all of them.

🧵 What the review mentions	Of 1,458 reviews	What reviewers report
👘 Hanbok	2.3% (34)	6 bought one; 5 mention made-to-measure tailoring; 4 place the shops on the second floor
Fabric and sewing supplies	3.4% (50)	3 come to buy fabric; 7 note that half the market is textiles
Vintage and second-hand clothing	0.8% (12)	5 place it on the second floor; 3 found most shops closed

Seven reviewers describe the layout as two markets under one roof. For someone arriving hungry that is a warning about which door to use:

Make sure to take the correct entrance as half of the market is for textiles — Google Maps review of Gwangjang Market, 4 stars, September 2026

mostly a fabric market with sewing and selling of buttons, zippers etc. — TripAdvisor review of Gwangjang Market, 5 stars, February 2025

One of the seven entered on the textile side and walked half the length of the building before reaching a food stall. Another, in a two-star review, found little to eat on a Wednesday and says the place felt like a textile district. And one reviewer notes that the fabric area closes in the evening, when the food side is at its busiest.

The trade-off: the same building rewards opposite plans. If you came for cloth, go by day. If you came to eat, the textile side is the long way in.

Buying a Hanbok: Six Buyers, All Satisfied

Six reviewers say they bought a hanbok at Gwangjang Market, and none of the six has a complaint about it. One gives the only price in the sample:

I bought Hanbok for my two daughters for 120,000 won. — Google Maps review of Gwangjang Market, 5 stars, July 2026

That is from July 2026, and we did not verify current prices. Another buyer adds two facts a visitor may need:

I am on the heavy side and was able to buy a Hanbok there. It does not give tax free receipts. — Google Maps review of Gwangjang Market, 3 stars, June 2026

Two of the six are Korean reviewers who each recommend a particular shop, one for children’s hanbok and one for everyday hanbok in a cool summer fabric. A Japanese reviewer buys a modernized hanbok there on every trip. And one couple describes the service:

She left her stall and ran (with all 7 of us following her) to another shop just to help me find the hanbok I wanted. — TripAdvisor review of Gwangjang Market, 5 stars, April 2019

Five reviews mention tailoring: hanbok, wedding dresses or suits made to measure. Four reviews place the hanbok shops on the second floor.

There is a gorgeous inner 2floor market for custom made Hanbok. — TripAdvisor review of Gwangjang Market, 5 stars, April 2019

On style the reviews disagree. A German-language reviewer says the tailors upstairs work in the traditional style only, and an English-language one agrees:

Not a place for modern hanbok though. — Google Maps review of Gwangjang Market, 4 stars, July 2025

The Japanese repeat buyer says the opposite. Three reviews say you can bargain a little. And two Japanese reviewers mention trying on a hanbok for free at a cosmetics store on the second floor, which one of them names as Olive Young.

The trade-off: six satisfied buyers is a small number and an unbroken one. What the reviews cannot tell you is the price range, since only one buyer wrote a figure down.

Fabric, Thread and Buttons

Fifty reviews mention the fabric trade, most of them in passing. Three are from people who came to buy: a Korean reviewer who goes often for hanbok fabric and cotton, a Japanese reviewer who says fabric is their usual reason for coming, and one English-language review that is a single line.

Great food and wonderful fabric buying experience — Google Maps review of Gwangjang Market, 5 stars, July 2026

Three reviews mention the supplies around it: yarn, buttons, zippers and, on the outer edge of the market, shops selling sewing machines. A reviewer from Taiwan lingers on those shops because the trade has all but vanished at home. What most visitors notice is the sight of it:

Rolls and rolls of colourful and beautiful cloth are for sale here — TripAdvisor review of Gwangjang Market, 4 stars, August 2019

The trade-off: reviewers describe a working fabric trade, and almost nobody in the sample writes about buying from it. If fabric is why you are going, these reviews will tell you it is there and little else.

The Vintage Floor: Check the Day and the Hour

Twelve reviews mention vintage or second-hand clothing, and five place it on the second floor. Three describe good finds or bargains. Three others arrived to find most of it shut, and they give the day and the hour.

🕚 When the reviewer went	What they found at the vintage shops
A Sunday, July 2025	Signs said open 11 to 7; all but one shop closed
A Saturday morning, August 2025	Three shops open
Before 11 am, October 2025	One shop open; the reviewer notes opening had moved from 10 to 11

pretty much everything except 1 store was closed — Google Maps review of Gwangjang Market, 2 stars, July 2025

The October reviewer still left with a jacket and a sweatshirt from the one shop that was open. A Japanese reviewer writing in 2021 describes many shops, unusual pieces at low prices, and shoppers carrying more bags than they could manage. We did not verify current hours.

There are also a few shops for good vintage clothes bargain. — Google Maps review of Gwangjang Market, 5 stars, December 2025

The trade-off: the vintage shops keep shorter and less predictable hours than the food stalls below them. The three reviewers who were disappointed all went early in the day or on a Sunday.

Methodology

Figures come from the SeoulFoodTour research corpus. This article uses one part of it: 1,458 rated reviews of Gwangjang Market from Google Maps and TripAdvisor, collected without filtering by rating.

What was counted. A review is counted when it mentions hanbok or traditional Korean dress, fabric, textiles or sewing supplies, or vintage and second-hand clothing, in English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, French or German. That gives 84 reviews, dated April 2019 to September 2026, 54 of them from 2025 or 2026. A review can fall in more than one of the three groups. Blankets and bedding are covered in a separate article and are not counted here.

How they were read. All 84 were read in full. Most only note that these shops exist. The numbers in this article about buying, tailoring, floors, closures and prices each count the reviews that say so explicitly, and several rest on fewer than ten reviews. They are reported as counts for that reason.

Names. Two Korean reviewers name the shops they recommend. Each is named in one review only, and we do not repeat the names.

Quotations. Every quotation is from a review written in English and is reproduced exactly as it appears in the original record, spelling included. Reviews in other languages are counted and described in our words, never quoted.

What this article does not do. It does not verify prices, opening hours, tax refund rules or where any shop is today. A review records what one person found on one day.

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Can you buy a hanbok at Gwangjang Market?+

Yes. Thirty-four reviews in our sample mention hanbok at Gwangjang Market, and six reviewers describe buying one, all of them satisfied. Five more mention made-to-measure tailoring. One reviewer of a larger build says they were able to buy one off the rack.

How much does a hanbok cost at Gwangjang Market?+

One review gives a figure: 120,000 won for hanbok for two daughters, in July 2026. Other reviewers call the prices reasonable or lower than in Myeongdong without giving numbers. We did not verify current prices.

Where are the hanbok shops in Gwangjang Market?+

Four reviews place them on the second floor, and three of those describe made-to-measure hanbok or wedding dress tailors there. Others mention hanbok shops along the side aisles off the food street. We did not verify the current layout.

Is the Gwangjang vintage market open on Sunday?+

One reviewer who went on a Sunday in July 2025 found all but one shop closed, although the signs listed Sunday hours of 11 to 7. Two others found most shops shut on a Saturday morning and before 11 am. We did not verify current hours.

Does Gwangjang Market sell fabric?+

Yes. Fifty reviews mention fabric, textiles or sewing supplies, and seven say that half the market, or one of its two sections, is textiles. Reviewers mention silk, cotton, hanbok fabric, yarn, buttons and zippers. One says the fabric area closes in the evening while the food stalls stay open.

Can you haggle or get a tax refund on hanbok at Gwangjang Market?+

Three reviews say you can bargain a little. One reviewer who bought a hanbok in June 2026 notes that the shop did not give tax-free receipts. Both are single reports about particular shops, and we did not verify them.