Luxury Hotel Cakes and Padded Jackets Push Prices Up Ahead of Year-End
Creatrip Team
3 months ago
As year-end demand rises, South Korea’s luxury hotels and fashion brands are lifting prices on seasonal items. Seoul’s Shilla Hotel offers a white truffle (송로버섯) Christmas cake priced at 500,000 won, up 100,000 won from last year’s black truffle version, citing costlier ingredients and lengthy production. Other top hotels list cakes mostly above 300,000 won, while more affordable hotel cakes remain around 100,000 won and high-end cakes are sold in limited quantities. Meanwhile, padding (down jackets) prices are diverging: mid- to high-end brands raised prices due to higher costs for down filling, materials like Gore-Tex, and components such as YKK zippers—examples include Kolon Sports’ Antartica women’s long down and The North Face’s 1996 Nuptse—while luxury labels like Moncler exceed 5 million won. SPA (manufacture-and-retail) brands such as SPAO and Eight Seconds keep value-focused, sub-100,000 won options, sometimes even lowering prices. Industry sources say global demand for down, rising input costs, and exchange rates drive the trend, with some brands opting to upgrade features and others optimizing materials to maintain affordability.
