Bernama
By Rohana Mustapha
In conjunction with the launch of the Malaysian Handicraft Promotion at Harrods, London from Feb 25-March 28
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 (Bernama) — Mohamed Al-Fayed, the owner of the world-renowned department store Harrods of London, visited the resort island of Langkawi some 11 years ago.
During that visit, Al-Fayed bought several leather items including a luxurious leather handbag made of crocodile hide priced at RM25,800.
Al-Fayed had also attended an exhibition on Malaysian products held at Carcosa Seri Negara on the invitation of the prime minister then, Datuk Seri (now Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
At that time there was talk that the Malaysian-made items would be on display at the 330 departments in Harrods spread over a floor area covering 90,000 square metres at Brompton Road, Knightsbridge London.
But the anticipation soon dissipated and this prompted the Malaysian parties concerned to reflect on their products, whether they were good enough to be on show at Harrods.
It is common knowledge that Harrods is a high end shopping mall that only showcases high quality and authentic wares. Even stepping into Harrods requires a shopper to be decently attired.
Hence, it is no surprise that Harrods only opens its doors to the best products.
FIRST STEP
Unlike some 11 years ago, this time to ensure that the Malaysian handicraft products make their way to Harrods, the country’s authority on handicraft, Kraftangan Malaysia took almost one year to ensure that the items flown thousands of kilometers to London are really of top quality.
The slogan “Malaysian Craft at Its Best” accompanies the 3,173 Malaysian products of 410 designs.
The items were hand-picked by representatives of Harrods Limited and are to be on show at the store from Feb 25 to Mac 28.
Indeed this is an honour for Malaysian-made products looking at Harrods’ strict guidelines on quality and product excellence.
The four representatives from Harrods Limited were led by its Director of Advertising Sales and Sponsorship Guy Cheston.
They were in Malaysia from Nov 24-28 last year to scrutinize the Malaysian handicraft to be on show at Harrods.
Four types of handicraft products were picked - forest-based, textiles like batik, tenun (woven) and songket as well as ceramics and metal.
Before the visit, Kraftangan Malaysia had organized a workshop to identify existing products apart from providing sketches and technical drawings of new products earmarked to be on show at Harrods.
The entrepreneurs involved were among those ready to penetrate into the foreign market and those who had participated in the one District One Industry programme.
They were picked based on factors like the design and quality as well as having the human and financial capital and facilities for production.
The outcome was that a total of 1,042 handicraft items went on exhibition at Kraftangan Malaysia’s Bangunan Seri Anjung.
Out of these, the Harrods party picked up 410 items with a total value of RM1,371,883 for the promotion.
The items to be showcased will be spread over several locations in Harrods - retail arcade right from the third to sixth casement at the Lower Level via Gate 9 as well as at the landing display, display case and wall showcase on the mezzanine floor.
The items will also be at Level One until Five via Gate 3.
NEGOTIATIONS AT HARRODS
Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal had visited the display areas during negotiations with Harrods last August. The negotiations were held during the staging of Malaysia Week at Potters Field Park, London.
When met at the preview of the function to launch the promotion of Malaysian handicraft recently, Shafie said Harrods Limited has set aside display areas and galleries of some 80 square metres for the Malaysian products.
The minister said the Malaysian handicraft promotion at Harrods is a step towards commercializing the Malaysian heritage and culture apart from achieving the vision to make the country the international hub for arts, culture and heritage.
Shafie noted that such move at Harrods is in line with the government’s objective of making handicraft-making sector as an economic contributor for the nation.
PREVIOUSLY ONLY PEWTER PRODUCTS
Shafie said previously only pewter products from Malaysia had managed to penetrate the foreign market despite the fact that the handicraft market in the United Kingdom is the world’s third largest and Harrods is among the world’s leading stores that offer handicraft items.
Sixty-six Malaysian entrepreneurs are involved at the Harrods’ promotion where 23 are from the forest-based sector, 17 in the textiles, 10 metal-based, eight from fashion and ceramics respectively.
A subsidiary of Kraftangan Malaysia, Syarikat Karyaneka Sdn Bhd, is handling the promotion and sale of their handicraft.
Shafie hopes that the promotion efforts in Harrods will pave the way to bigger markets for Malaysian handicraft products that have so far been limited to the domestic and Southeast Asian markets.
He said after the exhibition at Harrods Malaysian handicraft would be competing at the international level, and the local entrepreneurs and designers would have to work along with their foreign counterparts to serve their respective niche in the international arena.
“Hence they always need to produce their best in terms of quality as well as design and pattern in order to be on par with their international counterparts”, he said.
Shafie said he does not want to see a lack of new handicraft products especially when the international demand for Malaysian handicraft picks up.
LAUNCH OF PROMOTION
Her Royal Highness the Raja Permaisuri Agong Tuanku Nur Zahirah is to launch the promotion of Malaysian handicraft at Harrods. His Royal Highness the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin is expected to grace the event.
During the month-long promotion the Malaysian handicraft items will be on display at the seven-storey department store, which sits on an area of 18,000 square metres.
The Harrods department store receives an average of 1.2 million visitors a month. Throughout the promotion, the visitors will have the opportunity to participate in activities like batik painting at the retail arcade of casement 4 on the lower level.
Harrods opens its doors to this promotion from 10am until 8pm from Monday-Saturday and 11.30am to 6pm on Sunday.
The batik making demonstrations is to be held three times daily, the first at 11 am while the last ends at 7 pm.
A total of 54 pairs of Malaysian textile designs - batik, tenun and songket will be on show during the launch.
If the Harrods’ handicraft promotion is a success, more of Malaysian handicraft is expected to be on show at similar leading stores elsewhere including in Paris and New York.
– BERNAMA