A Guide to Seoul’s Sindang Neighborhood
Seoul is one of those cities where entire neighborhoods seem to change overnight. But Sindang, just east of Dongdaemun (home to the country’s largest wholesale market), has retained its edge, even as new businesses join the secondhand-furniture stores and fortuneteller shops that have been here for decades. In late 2019, Jiho Jang, 39, opened Zoo Sindang, a cocktail bar in a converted kitchenware store that he envisioned as a fantastical shrine in the forest, with faux foliage hanging from the ceiling. Nearby is Jimbba, a tasting room for Korean-made spirits, from makgeolli (sparkling rice wine) to mead. Its 36-year-old co-owner, the architectural designer Sangwon Kim, renovated a former butcher shop in 2022 to create a gallery-like space with floor-to-ceiling windows and encourages guests to bring in local food, such as the pork rice soup from Amebul, the casual restaurant next door, to pair with their drinks. Last year, north of Jimbba, the musician and furniture designer Chris Jang, 33, opened Gu, a cocktail bar, on the second floor of a 1990s building, furnishing it with salvaged-wood pieces from Redition, his furniture showroom two floors above. Hotels are still scarce in this area but, earlier this year, A Better Place began renting three retro-futuristic rooms inside a 1980s building that were all outfitted with modular furniture custom-made by its 43-year-old owner, Sukjin Moon. Also in the building is the wood-paneled, vintage-furnished Manmool, a cafe that serves meat pies and elderflower old-fashioneds. For Moon, the charm of Sindang lies in its easygoing if somewhat scruffy character; as he says, “It’s messy in a great way.”
— Katie Chang
Whimsical Bag Charms for a Playful Touch
A Twist on the Traditional Murano Lantern
The starting point for the lighting designer Lindsey Adelman’s newest collection, which she calls Overglow, was the centuries-old Venetian tradition of blowing handmade glass inside delicate wrought-iron cages to create Murano lanterns. In Adelman’s version, however, the metalwork is sculptural cast bronze and the proportions are distorted: Adelman overblows the glass and lets gravity take over. The voluptuous results recall balls of mozzarella, Eva Hesse’s circa 1960s net sculptures and, in certain cases, breasts exposed above an underwire bra. “I always associate body parts with these,” says Adelman, 57. “It’s as if you’re seeing something private.”
The pendants and sconces, which debut in September, are among the first created by the New York-based designer since she changed her business to a smaller studio model in order to devote less time to managing production and more to creative exploration. She sees the new setup as a return to her original practice, before the success of her 2006 Branching Bubble chandelier compelled her to create collections that could be scaled to meet increased demand. Those past products will now be made by outside fabricators, while Overglow lights will be crafted to order. “No two will be exactly alike,” Adelman says, adding that while clients will be able to choose colors and have some input on select projects, “they won’t know exactly what they’ll get.” The goal, she says, is for each piece to telegraph “a sense of beauty that borders on the grotesque.”
— Catherine Hong
A Rolex Watch Packed With New Features
Collectors greet every new model introduced by Rolex, the 120-year-old Swiss watchmaker, as an event. That may be because the company tends to innovate on its signature style incrementally, magnifying even small tweaks. But its much-awaited Land-Dweller, which comes in rose gold, as shown, platinum or white gold and stainless steel, combines so many novel touches that the fanfare is justified. With a slender profile housing a new movement (among the most accurate the company has ever engineered, it can be glimpsed through the sapphire crystal case back), a bold white honeycomb face that sets off the fluted bezel and an angular integrated bracelet, the Land-Dweller is an elegant counterpart to the Sky-Dweller, introduced more than a decade ago to appeal to world travelers. Earthbound, yes — but transcendent too. Rolex Land-Dweller 40, rolex.com.
— Nancy Hass
Photo assistant: Karl Leitz. Set designer’s assistant: Oliver Alex
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