IF THERE'S anything a man must have in his wardrobe, it would be good shoes, a nice watch and a classic bag.

That's the view of local fashion designer Keith Png, who has a penchant for luxury bags.

He told The New Paper: "There's a reason why they are expensive. Customers are paying for the leather, the quality and craftsmanship, apart from the marketing costs."

The 33-year-old added that although some designs have been around for a long time, people still buy them.

"It means you can use that bag 10 years later and it still won't be out of style."
This spending habit began when he was an 18-year-old part-time sales assistant and splurged his entire month's salary on a Fendi bag.

While living on a small salary 10 years ago, he shopped at Miu Miu and Hermes, buying canvas bags instead of more expensive leather ones.

Expensive habit

Now, he has 19 luxury leather bags, three of which are gifts from friends and clients.

He has spent $30,000 ("My mum will kill me!") on bags from Hermes, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Bally, Miu Miu, Helmut Lang, Givenchy, Goyard, Celine and Yves Saint Laurent. He also has bags from Porter and agnès b.

While he bought colourful bags a decade ago because they were more likely to be on sale, he now wants to buy a black leather bag from each label.

He does not treat these pricey bags with extra care. Png said he has no qualms putting his bags on the floor, because he doesn't want to be "bothered by the bag".

The designer - whose creations have been worn by celebs like Lin Chi-ling, Stefanie Sun, Zoe Tay and Fann Wong - admitted that he needed to keep up appearances.

He said: "People tend to judge you on how you look. It's superficial, especially in this line. What you are wearing equals to how well you are doing, so you have to upkeep the image."

He told us about an important lesson he learnt from celebrity hairstylist David Gan. "David told me, if I don't invest in quality products, then why would people invest in my clothes?"

Shopping in luxury boutiques has also helped him in his business - a fashion, fragrance and furnishings store named Hide & Seek.

Like the fashion houses he patronises, he wants his fashion label KOOPS - which is part of Hide & Seek - to leave a deeper impression on the public through good branding.

So he has invested money on name cards, hang tags, product packaging, carrier bags, stickers and ribbons.

He also wants his bags to be a reminder of his career milestones.

He explained: "If I work very hard, I want to use my money to buy something that's a reminder of my success.

"I had never spent more than $2,000 on a bag before, but three years ago, I blew $5,000 on a Bottega bag because I had come out to work as a solo designer."

The brown leather bag counts as one of his favourites. Others are a black Hermes 24/24 leather bag ($8,000) which was a birthday gift from Gan, and an olive-green Hermes Lindy ($12,000), a gift from a client.

The cheapest one he has is a $600 Ann Demeulemeester clutch bag.

This article was first published in The New Paper.