UPPER WEST SIDE — A popular Korean designer is opening her flagship store on the Upper West Side, forgoing some trendier fashion spots in the city like SoHo, the Meatpacking District or Williamsburg.
Boyoung Kim, known for being the mentee of New York-based designer Alexander Wang, is opening her first boutique at 410 Columbus Ave. this September.
Instead of sitting next to dozens of other retailers, Kim, who is in her 20s, chose a location where she'd stand out, said Faith Consolo from the Douglas Elliman Retail Group, who marketed the space.
"She’ll be a big fish in a little pond," Consolo said. "She’ll stand out more. She won’t get lost in the crowd."
Joseph Aquino, Consolo's partner in the deal, said Kim took note of the avenue's history in making her decision.
"This level of fashion hearkens back to the Columbus Avenue of the 1980s when cutting-edge designers defined the corridor," Aquino said.
The boutique will replace Berkley Girl, the 11-year-old clothing shop for tweens and teens, which left the 600-square-foot space between West 79th and 80th streets in June.
Kim, who currently designs exclusively for women and calls herself "cost conscious," founded her company in 2012 and is debuting her first collection for the fall/winter 2013 season, with a heavy focus on coats. She also plans to show her spring line at Fashion Week this September.
Coats will range between $1,000 to $1,200; dresses are between $300 and $600; and suits are about $800, Consolo said.
Kim did not respond to requests for comment, but on her site she defines her purpose as distilling "an image of a freshly refined woman who knows a modern approach to dressing with a casual couture attitude."
Before heading to fashion school at FIT, Kim bounced from journalism school to working in investment banking and public relations, the site explained.
Consolo said there are three other adjacent stores they will soon be marketing, in the hopes of creating a fashion-forward corner in the neighborhood.
