Walk into the new Bottletop boutique in Hong Kong’s brand new, ground- breaking K11 Musea mall, and you’ll see a set up unlike any other. The futuristic store features recycled mirrors sourced from car parks across its ceiling, 3000 recycled aluminium cans up its pillars, and 80,000 ring pulls from discarded drinks cans that form a tapestry up the wall. It’s all par for the course for the British accessories brand that’s been making the case for sustainable fashion since 2012, with bags crafted from materials once destined for the trash heap. Now, it has landed in Hong Kong with its first Asian flagship. “We’ve been waiting for the right time,” says founder Oliver Wayman of their new boutique. “This mall is built around the whole premise of sustainability and art, and that’s what we do. It gives you that wow moment when you walk in, which is quite rare sometimes.”
It’s just that ‘wow’ moment that Wayman has been trying to inspire in people ever since he first happened across the idea of making bags crafted from old ring pulls. Once a scout for Island Records, he found himself in South America back in 2011. “My mum showed me a really simple bag that made me think of Paco Rabanne, and I did some digging. We created a little micro economy. The ring pulls are collected by individuals, mainly homeless people. We buy them, clean them, dry them in the sun, and weave them into products.”
Those products soon formed the backbone of a business that has expanded globally via pop ups in New York, flagships on London’s Regent Street and collaborations with designers like Narciso Rodriguez and Donna Karan. Once a simple line of aluminium and crochet bags, now Bottletop deliver backpacks, wallets, totes and more, crafted from sustainable leather as well as those distinctive aluminium pulls. Key to their reach has been the tactile, futuristic appeal of designs that feel so much more than the sum of their parts. “It’s all very good to have a story, but fundamentally, if it’s not something you want to wear, then it’s not going to work,” warns Wayman.
All of Bottletop’s items are still made in the same, original atelier in Salvador, Brazil. “We started a training programme for women who were, at best, really badly paid housemaids, at worst prostitutes. It gave them an opportunity to be empowered and earn an income to look after themselves and their families. And, for the consumers, suddenly there were products they could wear with pride, that had a message.”
As the brand has grown, they’ve taken that message to promote sustainable fashion far and wide. “We’ve been knocking on doors for a long time, but now, the conversation is changing.” To help it along, they have teamed up with the UN on their latest initiative, #togetherband. “We learnt about the UN’s sustainable development goals, to basically sustain the planet as it is by 2030. Governments and corporates are clicking in, but consumers haven’t got a clue,” he explains. “So, we thought, what can we do to bring them to the public?” Their answer lies in colourful wristbands made from recycled ocean plastic, each corresponding to a different one of those audacious goals. Already endorsed by Naomi Campbell, David Beckham and Michelle Yeoh since their launch in April, they’re well on their way. “For every band you buy, you’re saving a kilogram of plastic from the ocean, and so far we have reached a billion people,” shares Wayman. Given how far he’s taken piles of Brazilian rubbish, you can bet he’s got further to go.
Editor
Gemma Soames
