Kharl Anthony Calleno 
Earlier this year, Filipina teen Zoe Gabriel made headlines when she called a Charles & Keith bag she had purchased a “luxury” bag. Now, the same Filipina teen is the new face of this popular Singaporean brand.
For International Women’s Day on March 8, Charles & Keith released the purple Alia bag. They created the bag” in support of the UN Women’s Storytelling for Gender Equality program.” On Saturday, March 4, they shared a photo of Zoe Gabriel carrying the bag. Charles & Keith published the image on their official Instagram feed.
Let us celebrate International Women’s Day with compassion, Gabriel wrote as a caption for a photo he posted to Instagram. Let us, like flowers, celebrate with equality by striving for equity.
The Filipina teen living in Singapore who, in January, went viral after posting a video on TikTok in which she gushed over a bag she had bought from a Singaporean fashion house. The bag is worth $80 (more than P4,000) and called a “luxury item” was met with widespread criticism online.
Just a few days after her post went viral, Charles and Keith invited Gabriel to join them for lunch. They were “impressed” by the way she handled the situation. Similarly, the founders, who came from humble beginnings themselves, invited her to take a tour of the company’s headquarters.
On January 15th, the TikToker overjoyed to announce that the brand had presented her with some free merchandise. Her video shows a handwritten note inside the package, which reads; “We hope that it will remind you of this special moment where you inspired so many others to be kind, compassionate, and confident.”
Charles Wong and his brother Keith Wong started their own shoe company in 1990. They went right away after getting their feet wet working for their father’s firm. In the then-known-as-outlet-store Amara Shopping Centre in Singapore, they launched their business. After a short period of time, the brand gained recognition and acquired by the French luxury goods giant LVMH.
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