Doosan’s Doota has reigned for years as the crown jewel of the Dongdaemun shopping district through inviting and fostering budding fashion designers while offering the best shopping environment in the area.

Doota, short for Doosan Tower, now faces a major challenge from the nation’s largest retailer Lotte Group which is opening a prettier and perhaps slightly more upscale mall on Friday.

Lotte Fitin houses about 180 brands of local designers it dug out from Korea’s fashion streets of Hongdae, Dongdaemun and Garosu-gil as well as online malls. 

Lotte Asset Development master leased the building which had remained empty ever since it was built in 2007.

Lotte redecorated the building, owned by some 1,500 investors who thought they blew their money for years, with the country’s largest media faade on the outside to light up every night and delightful Voronoi designs inside.

“It is a new start for Lotte based on hard work both property-wise and retail-wise to accommodate fast fashion and further enlarge this commercial district,” said Kim Chang-kwon, chief executive of Lotte Asset Development, in a press conference on Thursday.

“A greater number of tourists will visit the area once the Dongdaemun Design Plaza opens next year, and by allowing local designers to present themselves more effectively at Lotte Fitin, we expect to help them go abroad and raise the brand value of Dongdaemun.”

Lotte Fitin seeks to not only fit in with the nation’s major garment district full of undiscovered, fledgling designers and wholesalers, but also add to the vigor of the shopping zone.

Lim Joon-weon, director of the company’s shopping mall operations, stressed the fact that Dongdaemun is the only place in Korea where both manufacturing and consumption of fashion ― wholesale as well as retail ― take place, comparing it to New York’s garment district.

“We are set to meet with people from Singapore who wish to open a K-fashion mall there featuring the designers at Lotte Fitin,” Lim said.

“We also received a number of requests including having our designers occupy an entire building in Tokyo’s Shibuya and Osaka.”

A slew of famous designers including Lee Sang-bong, Jin Teok and Shin Jang-kyoung have opened stores in Lotte Fitin, adding an upscale touch to the new mall.

Hong Eun-joo, another established designer, said she chose to open hers “because it is Lotte.”

“People no longer buy expensive clothes and wear them for a long time. This is a time when trends change quickly and fast fashion rules,” Hong said. “(Lotte Fitin) is a great opportunity for young designers.”

A young designer named Ahn Sun-young said she was excited to have her first exclusive store “AAN” in the fashion mecca alongside famous designers.

The clothes and accessories sold at Lotte Fitin are around 40 percent less expensive compared to those in department stores, according to Lim.

“We receive about 22 percent of sales from our tenants as commissions, which is much lower than that of department stores, spend less in operation costs including labor costs, and don’t do sales promotions and gifts,” Lim said.

“We plan to keep labor costs at only about 1 percent of sales, even while we provide the level of service seen in department stores, unlike in other Dongdaemun malls where the staff is often unfriendly. We also have plenty of fitting rooms including ones in restrooms.”

Only a handful of brands in Lotte Fitin overlap with those in department stores.

Lotte Fitin occupies 11 floors of the building including three basement levels, and the top five floors will be used as office space owned by Shinsegae Engineering and Construction, which built the edifice.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)