Sustainable living is about living our lives with the least possible impact on Mother Nature and her beautiful green garden. When people hear green living, their thoughts almost immediately shift to organics and recycling. But as we all know, there’s more to living green just that because facing facts, organics are costly and recycling isn’t exactly a cheap process either. If left only to those two options, we’d find ourselves climbing an even steeper mountain in the race to save the Earth.
This is why it’s safe to assume that innovation, creativity and resourcefulness are our true saviours. Taking the lead in acquiring these three characteristics is Vivien Cheng, an artist and designer specialising in the reviving vintage handbags with custom, hand-painted motifs. A fashionable eco-warrior if you ever saw one!
Through her work, Vivien Cheng actually ‘saves’ used bags (clothes too!) from ending up in the trash. Her motto is, “Every thing deserves a second chance” and she’s right to focus that chance on fashion – one of the largest consumed product and therefore one of the largest generators of waste.
Vivien Cheng works with reclaimed vintage bags and believe me when I say she works wonders whether she is reviving a leather handbag or synthetic purse!
In the process to completing a masterpiece, each vintage bag is examined and appreciated for its unique shape and design before Vivien sketches up motifs and designs that she intends for the bag in colour. Only once she is happy with the sketch will she by hand and painstakingly too, apply coats/layers of paint to the bags to bring to life her sketches.
Now the beautiful thing about Vivien Cheng’s “reclaiming” bag art is that she makes sure that the motifs and designs she paints on ‘grow’ onto the original design of the vintage bag. This means to the unknowing eye, it would look as though the artwork was always and originally apart of the bag and not added on as it really is.
Judging from her collections to date (she even designed a collection for Manoush – a French ready-to-wear brand) her motifs are mostly inspired by nature (flowers, leaves, butterflies, grains and textures of flora). She has a fondness to use the chrysanthemum flower and the colour yellow. In fact for her designs for Manoush, I find she used lots of little birds/chicks which are adorable!
Vivien Cheng’s handwork are labours of love that gives a second chance at life to vintage bags and the earth! If you want to see more of her collections, visit her official site.
