“This is my creative outlet,” Alex says. “It’s almost like my side hobby. I used to joke that, hey, Bruce Wayne sits in a boardroom all day and at night he beats up criminals. I sit in a boardroom all day and at night I design handbags, which is a lot more glamorous, but a lot less heroic, let’s just say.”
When he moved back to Hong Kong six years ago, he says, “I was a middle-aged man with a gut and everything, but I got into boxing and somehow managed to box that away.” For a recent photo shoot, he got himself down to eight per cent body fat. While he normally takes inspiration from vintage styles, he likes to experiment as well with ideas that even he describes as “wacky”, like the Lucia, which came to him while he was training.
Exploring Boundaries
And yet, here is the unlikely sight of Jiaravanont standing before a desktop covered with vintage-inspired bags of his own design, including a bell-shaped shoulder bag, a fanlike tote, a tweed backpack and a streamlined duffle-shaped carryall. His favourite style, he points out, is a sculptural leather pouch attached to a ring handle that looks roughly like a boxer’s speed bag it’s named the Lucia, after the Dutch prize fighter Lucia Rijker.
“This is my creative outlet,” Jiaravanont says. “It’s almost like my side hobby. I used to joke that, hey, Bruce Wayne sits in a boardroom all day and at night he beats up criminals. I sit in a boardroom all day and at night I design handbags, which is a lot more glamorous, but a lot less heroic, let’s just say.”