Hong Kong Stories: Master In The House 2
The once thriving shoe-making industry has declined due to the northern migration of industries. Marco grew up hanging around his father’s shoe factory, learning on the job and hoping to follow in his father’s footsteps one day. Unfortunately, the factory later closed down due to a fire, and Marco switched to making handbags. Even though handbags are also made of leather, he found it much more challenging to make handbags, because there were countless methods and structures to reduce a three-dimensional handbag to a two-dimensional paper pattern. The steps of shoe-making that Marco learned in the past were all the same, with the most important steps being “lasting” (fixing the leather on the shoe last to shape the shoe) and painting by hand; whereas the paper pattern design of a handbag changes depending on such factors as the complexity of the structure and assembly, as well as the amount of leather used, so paper pattern design is the most important and difficult aspect in handbag production.
Having worked in the handbag industry for more than 30 years, Marco has opened his own workshop and organised leather goods making classes in the hope of unleashing his creativity at work. Unlike general leather goods workshops, Marco’s classes teach the methods employed in professional leather goods production, attracting even the practitioners in the field to enrol. He believes that it is important to arouse people’s interest in the craft before it can be passed on. Approaching his middle years, Marco is still holding on to his aspiration, and has created a handbag brand with all he learned in the past. Although the brand has yet to be launched and the results are unknown, he remains optimistic because, just like drawing a paper pattern, the finished product will not be merely acceptable with careful planning beforehand.
Producer: TSANG Chor-sun
