RIL CREED creates beautiful sustainable handbags for modern women and is also developing a community to empower females
As consumers, we all need to become more conscious of how the things we buy get made. Thankfully, Hong Kong has plenty of sustainable fashion platforms, eco-friendly home stores and green hair salons to choose from. And one more Hong Kong brand that believes in sustainability is RIL CREED, a handbag label with its flagship store in Causeway Bay.
RIL CREED: Sustainable style
Japanese handbag label RIL CREED was started in 2012. Designed by Hanada Kazue – who has worked with the likes of Kitson – Johanna Chan was already working with the brand when she decided to acquire the company and bring it to Hong Kong.
With parents who have been manufacturing other fashion brands for over two decades, Chan had spent a lot of time in factories in China, learning the creation process from start to finish. “I had just seen so much waste in the industry. There were so many materials piled up in factories that were just going into landfills, but there was nothing wrong with their quality,” she explains.
Enter RIL CREED, a designer label that creates its products from offcuts and upcycled materials. The brand produces timeless classics for modern women on the go, and has a vision to change the way that consumers look at luxury fashion pieces. Even small pieces of leather can be reused to create small leather goods such as keyholders, one of the most popular items from the label.
“People have been surprised that offcuts can be made into such beautiful products,” she notes, and while there are a variety of colours available in a range of styles at RIL CREED, you will always find staples such as black, brown, blue and other earthy tones.
Along with the sustainable aspects of the company that carry through into the factories, Chan wants to make sure that people see the labelfor what it is. “The ‘Made in China’ label has often had bad connotations in the past, so we want to be 100 percent transparent around that. You can actually visit our factory and have a tour to see that we make bags ethically, and how we treat the environment.”
The brand is also very passionate about empowering woman, from management on the factory floor through to the sales area. They even have their own hashtag, #RILWOMAN, where you can keep up-to-date with various events that they run.
“Rather than just selling products, we also host a lot of events. We want to create a community where local entrepreneurs can promote their brands and where women can empower women,” Chan says.
Ril Creed, Shop 7B, 1/F, 11-19 Great George Street & 27-47 Paterson Street, Fashion Walk, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, p. 9739 3162, 銅鑼灣Fashion Walk 記利佐治街11-19號1樓F7B號鋪
Looking for other great fashion picks in Hong Kong? Check out these Hong Kong footwear labels, discover local fashion label Sarah Lai or explore design studios at PMQ.
