In mid-February, Swiss accessory brand FREITAG took its TWO FACE customisation event to Quanzhou, Fujian, with a distinct local flavour. FREITAG, based in Oerlikon, Zürich, was founded in 1993 by brothers Daniel and Markus Freitag. They created the original version of their now iconic messenger bag using old truck tarps, bicycle inner tubes and car seatbelts. The brand is dedicated to creating designs with used and circular materials with sustainability in mind.
The TWO FACE events have been to many cities in China including Beijing, Hangzhou, Chengdu and Xi’an. For the Quanzhou event, the brand collaborated with a local coffee shop/bookshop/gallery called Local Fish. Local Fish is situated in a repurposed ice silo for the fishing port and uses discarded fishnets and fishing floats to create its lighting and fencing. Both partners in the collaboration fit like a glove with their values in upcycling.
The city of Quanzhou was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021. Since then, there have been various creative campaigns surrounding the city and its customs. Just last year, the lifestyle and design magazine Shang Cheng Shi, along with Italian fashion house Valentino visited the city for a “family feast” to celebrate Valentino’s SS24 collection with Fujian cuisine and the rich variety of intangible cultural heritages (ICHs) in the region.
Apart from the standard TWO FACE customisation, the Swiss brand and the local café also provided something special and hyper-localised – a craft workshop using repurposed fishnet, led by creator Jeje to pay homage to the women of the fishing port. For a sustainability-centric brand like FREITAG, the Quanzhou event combines creativity and ESG seamlessly, as well as a localised effort to pay tribute to the regional culture.
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