Handsome Bag Company: From taxi to tote bag
A Hong Kong architect and lawyer turn taxi parts into fashionable items. Here's how they do it
Two designers are waxing lyrical about Hong Kong's iconic red taxis.
“It’s the unsung hero of Hong Kong,” says Joseph Ng.
“And the workhorse of the city,” says Billy Potts.
It's also the inspiration behind their brand the Handsome Bag Company, which sells eco-friendly bags made from salvaged taxi seats.
Potts is a lawyer by day and Ng, an architect. But by night, the two moonlight as designers and trawl through old garages looking for raw materials.
Every taxi in Hong Kong needs to get their seats revamped every few years. The discarded worn out seat parts such as upholstery and seat belts are recycled by Handsome Bag.
“There is some stigma around secondhand items in Hong Kong, but that being said, it never stopped us,” says Potts.
From scrap heap to fashion shoot, we find out how it all happens.
In the sleepy neighborhood of Tai Hang lies a concentration of specialist garages. Potts and Ng ventured into this one and found lots of lovely junk they could use. The owner, Mr. Lam, keeps old and new taxi parts.
A freshly painted taxi door is nestled among cardboard boxes and oxygen tanks.
“There are more than 18,000 taxis in the city. People don’t think about it but there is a lot of design that went into each one of them,” says Ng.
Mr. Lam has been in the taxi repair business for 30 years. His children are attending university in the United Kingdom. They do not plan to carry on the family business.
Light industry garages like Mr. Lam’s are dwindling in Tai Hang, an area that is fast gentrifying. Glossy furniture shops and cafes are invading the streets previously lined by fluorescent lit garages.
In the remote recesses of Mr. Lam’s garage is a pile of old taxi seats, fenders, car bumpers and buckets. Rifling through the mess, Potts and Ng managed to salvage a driver’s seat and purchased it.
The designers’ first experiment with taxi parts resulted in a convertible chair that serves either as a lounger or a rocking chair. The full taxi seat was kept in tact.
But the designers realized it wasn’t sustainable as there is hardly a market for custom-made salvaged furniture in Hong Kong.
Inside a family-run upholstery shop, Mr. Ng is crouched on a car seat pinching together fabric. On the table above him rests a discarded taxi seat. His parents set up the business in 1987.
Potts and Ng came across the shop one afternoon. On a whim, Potts walked in and asked Mrs. Ng, if he could buy taxi scraps. She was busy playing mahjong so she asked her husband to give him the backrest of a taxi seat for free.
Potts examines a used taxi seat cover at the upholstery shop.
“The fabric is really easy to clean and is hard-wearing, like the taxi,” Ng explains.
Handsome Bag Company’s products are sewn by two NGO organizations called Home Sew and the Hong Kong Women Workers' Association.
Mrs. Kwan is the best seamstress at Home Sew. Kwan works in a tiny low-ceiling apartment in Mong Kok with peeling paint and faint lighting, about 300 square feet in size.
Home Sew Began as an NGO with more than 20 women but today it has shrunk to five.
The organization is a touchstone for these ladies who want an extra stream of income. By keeping production in Hong Kong, we can make a positive impact on our own society,” says Ng.
Watch a video about Home Sew here.
Born and bred in Hong Kong, Potts (left) and Ng are friends who went to the same high school.
The two entrepreneurs pour over new designs at the ECOLS workshop in Kowloon Tong. The designers use the recycled taxi material to make bags, iPhone cases, glasses cases and laptop covers.
The interior of their products are lined with fabric available in three different colors symbolizing local taxis: red for Hong Kong Island cabs, green for New Territories and blue for Lantau Island. The textured vinyl exterior retains a gritty urban feel and old seatbelt straps are used as handles for the bags.
Actress Jessica Hsuan (second from left) is a fan.
Bags can be found at QOD and Kapok. ECOLS will also have them on the shelf by mid-January.
www.handsomebagco.com
