I first noticed it at Golf de Servanes, in the Alpilles in Provence. It was a morning round — the light that particular corner of the south of France does better than almost anywhere, low and golden across the fairways, the kind that makes you understand why painters came here. Three women were playing the adjacent hole, and something about what they were wearing made me stop mid-stride.
Precise cuts. Unexpected colour combinations — a deep olive with a warm terracotta, paired in a way that had clearly been considered rather than assembled. Technical fabric that moved correctly, which is a thing you learn to recognise when you spend enough time watching people play golf. The silhouettes were narrower and more deliberate than anything in the Servanes pro shop or any European golf retail I had encountered. Not sporty. Not fashion-forward in the way that looks wrong after six holes. Something else entirely.
They were wearing ANEW and WAAC. Both Korean. Both almost entirely unknown in European golf retail at the time.
I asked them where they had found the pieces. One of the women — she turned out to be a French-Korean based in Lyon who returned to Seoul each spring — smiled. “You can’t find them here,” she said. “I bring them back.”
That conversation is two years old. The situation has changed somewhat, but not nearly as much as it should have. European pro shops have not caught up. European golf media have barely noticed. And in the meantime, Korean golf fashion has been quietly redefining the aesthetic standards of the sport for an audience that extends far beyond Seoul — and is now beginning to arrive on European fairways whether the industry is ready or not.
The statistic that stops the room
Before we discuss aesthetics, design philosophy, or individual brands, there is a single data point that reframes this entire conversation and that, in my experience, very few people in European golf know.
Golfers worldwide spend approximately $9 billion on golf apparel each year — and 45 percent of that is spent by South Koreans.
Sit with that figure for a moment. South Korea has a population of approximately 52 million people. The United States has 335 million. Korean golfers account for 45 percent of the global golf wear market, against the United States’ 26 percent share. A country with one sixth of America’s population is spending nearly twice as much on golf clothing. On a per-capita basis, there is no comparison anywhere in the world.
This is not a niche cultural curiosity. The global golf wear market was worth $8.87 billion, and Korea’s 45 percent share makes it the unrivalled market leader — with data suggesting that nearly half of the world’s golf clothing in 2022 was consumed in Korea. The design intelligence, the aesthetic vocabulary, and the technical standards that emerged from satisfying that level of demand did not stay in Korea. They are moving west. Europe is simply the last major market to understand what is coming.
Why Koreans spend like this
To understand Korean golf fashion, you first have to understand why Korean golfers spend the way they do — because the cultural mechanics are genuinely different from anything in the European or American golf traditions.
According to Lee Eun-hee, a professor of consumer science at Inha University, Korea’s cultural tendency to prioritise “saving face” in front of others surfaces intensely during activities that are socially recognised as luxurious. “The desire to flaunt one’s social standing with displays of wealth is deeply engraved,” she said. “During one of the most luxurious pastimes that an ordinary citizen can have, naturally, such desires will rise to the surface in the forms of luxury golf-related items.”
Golf in Korea is not simply a sport. It is a networking vehicle, a status signal, and a social arena where appearance carries professional as well as personal weight. The consequence of this is that the Korean golf apparel market developed at a speed and sophistication that has no parallel. The domestic golf wear market grew 21.7 percent in two years, from 4.6 trillion won in 2019 to 5.6 trillion won in 2021. The pandemic sent a rush of younger golfers into the sport, accelerating spending and design innovation, with less-traditional looks finding favour with all but the oldest generation of players.
The result was a design pressure cooker. Brands that wanted to survive in this environment had to produce apparel that was technically excellent, aesthetically distinctive, and capable of signalling identity with the precision that Korean consumers demanded. The brands that could not do this did not last. The brands that could became some of the most interesting golf labels in the world.
The brands, and what each one actually stands for
I want to be careful here. Most coverage of Korean golf fashion in English reduces it to “bold and fun” — a description that is accurate for some brands and reductive for others. The Korean golf market is not a single aesthetic. It is a spectrum, ranging from maximalist graphic expression to restrained technical precision. Understanding where each major brand sits on that spectrum is what allows you to shop it intelligently.
WAAC is the one most Europeans encounter first, and it earns the attention. Founded in 2015 by a group of young designers who wanted to break the monotony of traditional golf fashion, WAAC — which stands for Win At All Costs — built its identity around bold graphics, a distinctive mascot, and technical fabrics that actually perform. The brand was created “by golfers, for golfers,” sponsored the Korean golf team’s apparel for the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, and uses only high-quality materials, all of which provide UV protection. WAAC is expressive, playful, and occasionally loud — but it is never cheap. The technical standard underneath the graphic surface is serious.
WAAC puts significant effort into offering products that showcase the individual identities of female golfers specifically, incorporating innovative designs and details into golf wear, and proposing a unique experience not found in other brands — including items that can be worn both on and off the course, such as jumpsuits and woven dresses. For European women who have spent years navigating the narrow choice between traditional golf wear and sportswear, this is a meaningful distinction.
ANEW occupies a different register entirely, and is the brand I find myself recommending most often to women in the networks I work with. ANEW was founded with an ambition to revolutionise golf wear — not only redefining styles on the golf course but sparking a trend-setting movement in the industry. The brand stands out through its in-house technological development and design teams, combining functionality and fashion to secure a unique position in the market — with retail presence in Korea, the USA, Japan, China, and Thailand.
What ANEW does that most competitors do not is what one American editor, writing for a major golf publication in 2025, described as “focal point fashion” — a type of styling that draws attention to specific areas and accents to elevate simple details and create a moment. They’ve mastered this approach, bringing touches of Seoul to every thread. The pieces are not loud. They are precise. A seam placed unexpectedly. A hemline that breaks at an angle you have not seen before. Technical fabric in a colourway that has been arrived at through genuine design consideration rather than seasonal trend-following. For European women who have arrived at the quiet luxury aesthetic and are looking for a brand that understands it from a different cultural angle, ANEW is the answer.
Pearly Gates is the heritage brand — older, more established, with a loyal following among Korean golfers in their thirties to fifties. Pearly Gates combines timeless silhouettes with fresh, quirky design elements — a Japanese-Korean collaboration that has become a mainstay of the Asian golf fashion scene. If WAAC is the avant-garde and ANEW is the precision modernist, Pearly Gates is the considered classicist who occasionally surprises you.
GDBR — the acronym stands for God Bless Digital Revolution, which tells you something immediately — is the rebellious younger sibling in the Korean golf world, with streetwear-influenced designs that bring city cool to the course: oversized hoodies, tech fabrics, bucket hats, and functional layers that would not look out of place at Seoul Fashion Week. This brand is for a different customer than the one I primarily write for — younger, more urban, more interested in the cultural crossover between golf and streetwear. But understanding it matters, because GDBR represents where golf fashion is going as the sport’s demographics shift. The juniors in the academies I work with are paying attention to brands like this. In five years, so will everyone else.
The honest counter-argument
Any serious analysis of Korean golf fashion in 2025 has to include this: domestic golf-related spending in South Korea has declined for 16 consecutive months since the beginning of 2023, continuing through 2025, as the post-pandemic boom faded and Korean golfers increasingly turned to overseas destinations where green fees are substantially lower.
The Korean golf apparel market, which reached its peak during the pandemic years, is now being reshaped as younger generations who drove rapid growth opt for overseas trips instead of domestic play.
I include this not to undermine the case for Korean golf fashion in Europe, but because honest analysis requires it — and because the data actually supports the European opportunity rather than contradicting it.
The Korean brands expanding internationally in 2024 and 2025 are doing so precisely because the domestic market is saturating. They are looking for new audiences. The success of Korean golf fashion has already influenced the most premium of global fashion brands — including A.P.C., Lanvin, and Philipp Plein — to launch golf apparel lines in South Korea, using it as a test bed for global expansion. Europe is not a secondary thought. It is the growth frontier.
For a European platform focused on women’s golf lifestyle, this creates a specific and time-sensitive opportunity. The brands are motivated to establish European presence. They need editorial relationships, distribution intelligence, and trusted local voices. They are, right now, looking for exactly the kind of platform this one is being built to become.
What European women golfers actually need to know
I want to be practical, because this platform is built around practical knowledge, not trend reporting.
The first thing to understand about shopping Korean golf fashion from Europe is sizing. Korean sizing conventions differ from European ones — typically running smaller across the range, with particular differences in shoulder width and hip measurements. Before ordering anything, look for brands that publish both Korean and EU size conversions. ANEW’s international site does this reasonably well. WAAC’s European availability is still developing, and sizing guidance can be inconsistent. If in doubt, size up and account for the fact that the technical fabrics have more stretch than they initially appear to.
The second is availability. Direct shipping from Korean retailers to Europe is now possible for most major brands, though import duties and shipping times vary significantly. The more practical route for European buyers, particularly for a first purchase, is through the growing number of multi-brand stockists importing Korean golf fashion to European markets. This is a space that is developing quickly — and one this platform will track actively, including with direct brand partnerships as they become available.
The third is care. Korean golf fabrics tend to use high-performance technical blends that require specific washing conditions — typically cold water, gentle cycle, no tumble dry. This is not a weakness. It is a consequence of the technical standard these fabrics are built to. Treat them accordingly and they last considerably longer than comparable European or American alternatives.
Why this matters for how European golf will look in five years
I coordinate junior golf travel across the Mediterranean, which means I spend a significant amount of time at tournaments in different countries, watching who is wearing what and where the visual standards of the sport are moving. The direction is clear.
The women who are discovering golf now — in their thirties and forties, often through their children’s introduction to the sport — are not the women for whom the existing European golf wardrobe was designed. They come from industries and professional environments where personal presentation is considered and intentional. They travel. They shop across international markets without particular loyalty to domestic retail structures. They have opinions about cut, fabric, and colour that were formed long before they picked up a golf club.
These women are finding Korean golf fashion by themselves. The Korean brands are reaching them through social media, through the networks of Korean expat communities in European cities, through the occasional editorial mention in international fashion media. What does not yet exist is a curated, intelligent, European editorial voice that helps them navigate this landscape — that explains the difference between WAAC and ANEW, that advises on sizing and care, that contextualises Korean design philosophy for a European sensibility.
That is the gap this platform exists to fill. And given the pace at which Korean golf fashion is arriving on European fairways, the window for owning that editorial position is shorter than it looks.
The women on the fairway at Servanes were ahead of the curve. They usually are.
[Your Name] is the founder of [Platform Name], national junior golf academy coordinator in Malta, and regional golf travel organiser across the Mediterranean. A business transformation director at one of Europe’s largest gaming operators and mother of two, she came to golf alongside her children and built this platform because the one she was looking for didn’t exist.
Read next: The Golf Mom Aesthetic — Why the Most Influential Consumer in Golf Is Still Being Ignored
Sources and further reading
- Looks Are Everything: Why South Korea Is Golf Apparel’s Most Major Player — Golf.com, October 2024
- Korea in Midst of Golf Wear Craze — The Korea Herald / The Investor, April 2023
- Golf Apparel Goes Trendy and Upmarket in Korea on Rise of Young Golfers — KED Global, August 2022
- With Waning MZ Interest, Is Heyday Over for South Korea’s Golf Apparel Market? — KED Global, July 2025
- South Korea’s Golf Industry Market Exceeds $15bn in Value — KED Global, September 2023
- Driving Demand for Golf Apparel in Korea — The Woolmark Company
- Driving Style: How South Korean Golf Apparel Is Shaping Global Fashion Trends — Loop Golf Blog, September 2024
- Why Has South Korea Become the World’s Largest Golf Apparel Market? — Galileo Sports, July 2024
- The Future of the Golf Industry: Demographics and Macroeconomic Trends — Yanolja Research, 2025
- Top Korean Golf Apparel Brands You Should Know — Erthe Golf
- The 32 Best Women’s Clothing Brands in Golf — Skratch Golf, 2025
- ANEW Golf Brand Information — Sokim New York / ANEW Golf USA
- Win At All Costs: WAAC’s Unique Approach to Golf Apparel — AGM Golf, November 2024
- Golf Wear in Korea: From Symbol of Luxury to Trendy Expendable — ResearchGate / academic literature