Koh’s precocious ability to design, make, and automatically attract the clientele for his super-luxurious Ethan K bags—a bespoke business he began when he was 22—springs from the fact that he’s been training since he was practically a baby. He’s the fourth-generation son of the Heng Long International family in Singapore, highly specialized precious skin tanners, who supply alligator, crocodile, and other exotic skins to Hermès and Prada. “I was working on the selection team grading skins as a teenager when the artisans came in from Prada,” Koh said. “It’s just like grading diamonds. No two crocs are alike, and you have to match them, so really the art of purchasing is for a connoisseur.”
After managing to getting a stint at Hermès in Paris under his belt (in order to observe how bags are made and sold) he came to London to study. “Then I borrowed £3000 from my dad and decided to try to launch my own small line, buying from him at the same rate as anyone else, after finding a factory in Italy to hand-make them.”
Word about what this young, amusing boy does has spread amongst the cognoscenti, lunch by lunch, clutch by clutch. Now Koh says he’s managing orders for 30 bags at a time, for which his clients pay £6000 each, and half of it up front. If that sounds stratospheric on an ordinary mortal income, well, yes it is. But Koh is already flying at a level where the women he academically describes as “High Net Worth Individuals” who know their Birkins from their Bottegas in intimate detail. So what are they seeking from young Ethan K? “Oh, my clients are trend-setters,” he said “ They want turquoise, green, and purple—all the fashion colors! It’s like going into a candy shop for them. And it’s good that I am able to advise them there, on the spot, with their clothes. What I am, I think, is a bag couturier!” |
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