You Won’t Find A Bag Like Zoë Woodcock’s 'Cos She Makes Her Own

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Beijing’s an urban jungle, and in any jungle, we need tools to survive and thrive. As urban jungle dwellers, we’ve managed to blend practicality with style, resulting in the modern bag. Here, form meets function, and what looks stylish and fashionable on the outside contains all our essential survival tools on the inside. Inspired by this, we ask expats each week, “What’s in your bag?” and get insights into which essentials they keep on hand when out and about in the capital city.

Hi, I’m Zoë (with the dieresis… or Zo to most Taobao sellers!), originally from England. I moved to China, via Austria and Spain. I was initially drawn to the Middle Kingdom through my love of archery and tea, but as a design teacher, the way of thinking here has totally caught my interest. The sheer number of creative workshops available in Beijing has helped me find my people and settle into this amazing city. I’ve made sneakers with sassie Susie (Make Me), candles with knowledgeable Kate (King Ferdinand’s Candles), and Linocuts with phenomenal Fei (Fei Fei Illustration) to name a few.

In the early days of the pandemic, I found myself needing a distraction from work filling all my hours and happened upon a leatherworking starter kit on TMall, along with some bag patterns on the internet, so and off I went! I was in Hangzhou at the time and with everything being on my phone by the wonders of Alipay and my apartment having an electric lock, all I needed fit inside this tiny bag – my first creation.

Coming back to life in Beijing was very different! With the traffic and the volume, I needed a bigger bag! So I drafted this based on a messenger bag pattern I found on TMall, based on the dimensions of my everyday requirements.

As for the bag itself, I love the wine-colored leather, I managed to source some pieces of off-cuts from car seats, combined with my favorite gun-metalwork and a Ferragamo-style clasp. It currently has a long strap, but the beauty of making things yourself is that you can change details such as handles easily and I am currently crafting a shorter style chain and dual leather straps to give me the option of carrying it like a backpack.

Alongside the standard Beijing essentials of toilet kit, water, snacks, and power bank, my bag also contains:

Noise-canceling headphones! As a sound-sensitive, podcast-addicted person who cannot deal with the traffic, my headphones are a life-saver. A journey downtown is an excuse to escape into another podcast, a further chance at lifelong learning.

A teacher always has a pen on them and mine is a gift from a dear friend in Vienna, it’s a Swarovski multifunction pen – cleverly concealing a USB key in the barrel amongst the crystals. Practicality and glitter, what more could a tech girl want?

Scent is an important aspect of my life, I narrowly missed out on studying at Cinq Sens in a previous life and can geek out on fragrances with Miranda from Kiyani for hours, so I always have a flacon of perfume with me, either a Jo Malone or Atelier Cologne, something a little unusual, but a hug in a bottle.

Another gift, this time from a previous student, is my Coach key and cardholder – bought in red to bring me luck in China. And now I’m back to old-school keys and compound access cards, they all fit in this neat little holder.

Though I studied medicinal chemistry, I’m still interested in natural remedies and have recently discovered the Shanghai Apothecary, makers of small-batch treatments. Their "Tech-Neck Begone" is amazing, especially when school goes online.

Want to share your Beijing survival tools with us? Shoot us an email at [e-mail], message our official Jingkids WeChat account (ID: beijing-kids), or leave a comment below!

Images: Courtesy of Zoë Woodcock

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