Keeping the human touch

1 of 4

LACQUERWARE from Hanoia

Lacquerware from Vietnam arrives in Rustan’s

A DISPLAY of red lacquered vases stands in Rustan’s Makati. Gold-rimmed resin topped off with red lacquer and silver-leaf tinted red are polished to a gleam akin to a flame — this is the work of Hanoia, a new brand from Vietnam that recently joined Rustan’s.

We were told that Hanoia has been making commissions for luxury houses around the world since 1997, but they decided to make their own brand in 2016.

“We wanted to preserve this kind of craft,” Dinh Cong Tai, marketing and communications director of Hanoia, told BusinessWorld in an interview during the March 24 launch. “I think there’s no better way than to have the artisan that can live with that craft; with that job.” He added that in modern times, “Lacquer has become more a fine art medium rather than in the daily context.”

Lacquer, prized for thousands of years in East Asia, is a coating originally made from the sap of the Chinese lacquer tree (Toxicodendron vernicifluum). These items were prized by the aristocracy of Asia, then traded in Europe, where the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa took special pride in her collection. These days, sap-based lacquer has become rare, replaced by synthetics, or else derived from insect-based shellac. Mr. Dinh said, “We follow the same process, but we use modern-day materials and also technology — to help the artisan to work.”

They have over 200 people in their workshop. “The young generation doesn’t want to follow this kind of craft anymore,” he says, though in recent years, they have managed to make artisanship an appealing career for young Vietnamese workers. “We help the artisan to continue to live with the jobs. That’s (how) we convinced the young generation to continue to learn lacquer.”

This is their first shop-in-shop concept abroad, and in choosing Manila as their first location abroad, Mr. Dinh emphasizes the friendship between Rustan’s president Anton Huang and Hanoia’s chief executive officer, Christian de Ruty. “It’s also a good opportunity and a good relationship,” he said. More importantly, “Manila in particular is a very cosmopolitan city.”

The vases we mentioned, we were told, were made within a period of two months. Perhaps that is what true luxury means, beyond labels and stories. Mr. Dinh said, “Luxury today is more about craftsmanship. What we value most is the time and skillfulness of the artisan — the touch of humans.” — Joseph L. Garcia