It's in the bag

Luxury brand Duanmu combines natural materials with Chinese aesthetics to create exquisite handbags

Gu Mingxi, 26, from Beijing, works in finance. She works long hours and her job is stressful, so she rewards herself by spending almost half her annual salary on handbags from international luxury brands. Last week, she bought a wooden clutch from a local brand, which cost her as much as a Gucci leather handbag.

Duanmu, the Beijing-based brand is named after a Chinese compound surname listed in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) classic text, Hundred Family Surnames.