Grace Lant, a Hong Kong-based knit designer and past winner of the Redress Design Award, has reimaged the Kipling Art M Bag using recycled materials.
As part of its 30th-anniversary celebrations, Kipling collaborated with female creatives like Lant to raise awareness of sustainability.
Introduced in March with the aim of celebrating International Women’s Day, the designer uses pre-existing material to reduce carbon footprint right from the design stage, where about 80 per cent of a product’s environmental impact is determined.
The bag features a classic black base with patterned accents, quilting and webbing. It also has a removable front pocket that can be transformed into a crossbody bag, an internal laptop sleeve and a false bottom that lifts up to become a divider, creating separate compartments.
According to Redress, Lant’s Art M Bag is multi-functional and can serve as an everyday bag but its timeless design helps ensure that customers can use it for a long time.
“Working with the deadstock was fun. Using deadstock and designing from what is available has become my favourite way to work,” said Lant
“In the end, I chose more neutral colours (brown/beige/grey) to go with the multi-functional approach, I felt these deadstock choices made the end product more versatile.”
Lant was awarded the Redress Design Award 2020 Hong Kong Best Prize and is co-founder of the brand Love From Blue – a contemporary knitwear label exclusively using natural fibres and deadstock yarns. Her Redress Design Award collection, Amalgamation, took inspiration from minority groups and was sourced from deadstock, sampling yardage and end-of-rolls.
Further reading: ‘Sustainability is an inevitable trend’, says Redress Design Awards winner Le Ngoc Ha Thu
