I buy everything here myself. Not sponsored.
I write about Korean ballet brands, and the question I get most is simply: how do I actually buy this?
It’s a fair question. Most of these labels sell through channels built for domestic customers, and the sizing charts assume you already know Korean sizing. Here’s the practical version.
Where these brands actually sell
Almost all of them use Naver Smart Store — Korea’s dominant small-business storefront.
| Brand | Where they sell |
|---|---|
| JENNY BALLET | Naver Smart Store |
| ODD ON TUTU | Naver Smart Store |
| YURA BALLET | Naver Smart Store |
| TAECHO | Own site (taecho.life) |
| DEGAGE | Own site + occasional pop-ups |
| La Belle Blanc | Own online shop |
The problem: Naver Smart Store checkout generally expects a Korean phone number, a Korean address, and a Korean payment method. Most brands do not ship internationally themselves.
The exception: brands with their own site sometimes do. TAECHO and DEGAGE are worth checking directly before assuming you can’t order.
The three ways people get around it
1. A proxy buyer / forwarding service
The standard route. A service buys on your behalf and reships to you.
How it works
- You send them the product URL and your size
- They buy it and receive it at a Korean address
- They repack and ship it to you
Costs to expect
- Service fee: usually 5–10% of the item price
- Domestic Korean shipping: around ₩3,000
- International shipping: the real cost, and it depends entirely on weight
Why it suits ballet wear: leotards are light. A leotard and a skirt together weigh very little, so international shipping stays reasonable in a way it wouldn’t for, say, shoes and books.
📌 Consolidate. Order three or four pieces in one go. Shipping one leotard and shipping four costs nearly the same.
2. Ask the brand directly
Worth doing, and underrated.
Several of these are small operations where a real person reads the messages. I’ve had La Belle Blanc repair a faulty strap in-house and cover shipping both ways after I’d already removed the tag — which is not the behaviour of a company that can’t be reasoned with.
Send a short, polite message in English asking whether international shipping is possible. The worst case is no.
3. Someone travelling to Korea
If you know anyone going, this is by far the cheapest. Give them the product link and your size.
Better still: DEGAGE has run pop-up stores in Seoul, and Chacott’s flagship in Tokyo is a day trip from Korea. If you’re travelling, it’s worth planning around.
The three things that go wrong
① You order your usual size
Korean leotard sizing runs about one size smaller than European sizing.
If you’re a European M, look at L. My own calibration: I take M in most Korean leotards and S in La Belle Blanc, which runs generous.
And the specific trap — ODD ON TUTU skirts. Their waistbands have very little stretch. I took S in the Sylfiden skirt, couldn’t get into it, and spent two months dieting rather than admit the mistake. Size up on skirts.
② You can’t return it
Once a piece has left Korea, returning it is usually more expensive than the piece. Treat every international order as final sale and choose accordingly.
This is the argument for starting with one-size items:
- YURA BALLET Gabrielle crop top — ₩39,000, one size
- TAECHO Flow Slit skirt — ₩54,500, one size with adjustable waist
- YURA BALLET Psyche set — ₩91,000, one size
Nothing to measure, nothing to get wrong. Find out whether you like the fabric and the cut before committing to a ₩140,000 leotard you can’t send back.
③ Customs
Depends entirely on your country and the declared value. Look up your own import threshold before ordering — a large consolidated shipment can cross it where several small ones wouldn’t.
What to order first
If I were starting over from outside Korea, in this order:
- YURA BALLET Gabrielle crop top — ₩39,000, one size, layers over anything
- TAECHO Flow Slit skirt — ₩54,500, one size, and it genuinely changes how your movement looks
- DEGAGE Classic leotard — ₩72,000, adjustable straps, the one you’ll wear every week
- JENNY BALLET Odile — ₩58,000, when you want to feel like something
Total: ₩223,500, all in one consolidated shipment. Roughly what two Western-brand leotards cost.
Is it worth the trouble?
Honestly — for the cheap one-size pieces, yes, easily. For a ₩140,000 leotard you can’t return, only once you know your size in that brand.
What you’re buying isn’t just price. Korean labels put detail into practice wear that most Western brands reserve for performance costume — patented corset seams, gold pearl in the mesh, asymmetric hems, ribbon shoulders that genuinely don’t come undone.
Nobody’s writing about it in English yet. That’s most of why I started.
Ordering from somewhere I haven’t covered? Leave a comment with your country — if enough people ask about the same route I’ll write it up properly.
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