One of Hana Fedora Abdul Aziz's long-term goals is to establish an academy for crafting, as she feels there is a lot of talent and potential here at home. Photo: The Star/ART CHEN
Having studied electrical engineering at a post graduate level, Hana Fedora Abdul Aziz’s ambition to go into lecturing seemed set in stone.
However, after working as an engineer for a while, she felt a desire to venture into something more creative.
It was when she was living in the UK in 2018 with her husband and three children that she began dabbling in leather crafting, enrolling herself in the London College of Fashion to hone her skills.
“I posted my work online and friends began asking me if I could make bags for them. So that’s how it started as a business,” said Hana during an interview at her studio in Kuala Lumpur.
The family moved to Taiwan when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, and the business was on hiatus until she started it back up again in KL in January 2024.
Ten months in, the popularity of Hana’s products continues to rise – she creates custom leather bags and has also began producing ready made items available for purchase online.
“Leather crafting has helped me rediscover my creative side,” says Hana. “I consider myself an extrovert, but doing hands-on work in a quiet space is extremely fulfilling.”
One of Hana’s long-term goals is to establish an academy for crafting, as she feels there is a lot of talent and potential here at home.
Hana Fedora Abdul Aziz began dabbling in leather crafting while she was in the UK. She enrolled in the London College of Fashion to hone her skills. Photo: The Star/ART CHENRead more: Malaysian fashion label Emri Vision aims to make an impact on sustainability
“Currently, I have five artisans in training,” says Hana. “I’ve always loved education but obviously I can’t start a university on my own. So I thought, because I have the skills, I can actually train people. I think it’s a shame that we have such talents and resources in Malaysia but many fashion companies outsource talent from China or Indonesia.
“We have all this talent. We can develop it, and then maybe one day, people will come to us instead. It’s a long term goal because for a few years we won’t actually be making money. And in order to be an academy, you need to have a very good reputation. I need to show people that we have these skills.”
Where do you get inspiration for your designs?
The designs are actually based on my customers requests. It started that way because my customers would say, “Okay, I want the flaps here, handles to be here, I want like this function to be like this” and so on.
Once they tell me their requirements, I adapt the product to their lifestyle.
It started that way, everything made to order, but just recently we started to create ready-made so that’s why I’ve upped production a bit more, because it does take a long time to make one handbag, around four days, from scratch.
What were some of the most valuable lessons you learned during your fashion programme that shaped your approach to creating leather handbags?
There are resources to learn leather crafting online, but, in a fashion programme because you are learning from the professionals, you learn a lot of tricks and tips of managing leather. Every leather is different, every leather has its own behaviour.
It’s just like us, our skin is all different, so there’s a different way to handle different “skin”.
Some leather is rough, some are soft, some are very thin. So we have to manage how we handle the skin, how to colour it, how to make it soft and so on.
That’s why we call ourselves artisans, instead of just workers.
Do you practise sustainability for your brand?
My main values for this company revolve around sustainability. A lot of people may not know that the vegan leather that they call sustainable, it’s really just plastic, it’s still harming the environment.
My products are by-products of what we eat, we actually don’t kill any cows.
The method of processing leather is way more green than the processing of plastic, to be honest.
And then there are types of leather, there’s vegetable tan and chrome tan.
Vegetable tanned technique involves using natural vegetable tannins to alter the protein structure of the hide, causing it to become leather.
Chrome tanned leather uses chemicals, which is how you get all these vibrant colours.
To ensure it’s sustainable it must be obtained from reputable tanneries. The industry is small which makes them high on accountability.
Read more: Socially responsible fashion is the right way forward here in Malaysia
How do you ensure that your materials meet your standards, and why is this important to your brand?
The leather industry is actually quite small, the very reputable tanneries in Europe have been doing it for hundreds of years.
Most of my leather is sourced from Europe and the UK, just to make sure I get the high grade, quality ones.
Yes, you can get leather form China and Indonesia as well, but I wanted to work with quality leather, the ones which make brands like Hermes and Goyard.
My leather is from Europe but the tools are from China, as they make very good tools.
And then, I make everything from scratch here in my studio.
How important is it for Malaysians to create our own products?
I think it’s very important for things to be made locally, because when you outsource, even the smallest things... what happens when, suddenly, you are unable to get the resources that you’ve been accessing?
If everything is made in house, or everything is made in Malaysia and the economy is still running, even if the world closes, and we have to stay in one place, we still have everything inside the country.
How did you manage your family life while running a startup?
It’s a bit of a balance and time management is so important. I don’t work as “full time” as most, like 9am to 6pm.
I start early, around 8am and at 3.30pm I have to pick the kids up and start all the domestic work.
It requires very precise planning, like what to do today, what do I cut and so on, to make sure I get everything done in time.
