Salvatore Ferragamo’s Gancini ‘Bing Sutt’ truck celebrates Hong Kong’s art scene

Hong Kong’s very existence lays bare an inescapable East-meets-West connection; one crystallised into the very fabric of the city’s culture and citizens and ways of life.

Salvatore Ferragamo’s Gancini truck — designed by DOTES, a design studio by architectural designers Justin Chow and Ka Chi Law — travels back in time to decades past, reviving a mostly-extinct dining experience well-embedded in Hong Kong history: the bing sutt. A bing sutt is the predecessor of the contemporary cha chaan teng; an eating establishment popularised in response to Hong Kong’s changing dietary habits — read: Westernised — after World War II. French toast (or, as it’s translated: ‘Western’ toast). Swiss rolls. Milk tea. Remnants of British colonial rule that lingered; then, re-claimed in ‘Hong Kong-style’ to become a core tenet of the city’s gastronomical identity.

Making three separate pitstops, the Gancini truck’s journey catalogs the districts breathing life into Hong Kong’s East-meets-West persona: Man Mo Temple and Queen’s Road Central in Sheung Wan, and Harbour City by Victoria Harbour.

For household brands, there is little more powerful than an enduring, immediately recognisable symbol. A correlation that travels from point A to point B without so much as a single uttered word. Salvatore Ferragamo’s Gancini is one such motif; a horseshoe-shaped signifier that first appeared as a clasp on the Italian luxury house’s handbags, and, through the years, filtered through everything from belt buckles and shoe toppers to printed on ready-to-wear.

The bing sutt truck is wallpapered from bumper to tailgate in a refreshed revamp of the Gancini — named for this season as the ‘Gancini Iconic’ in a frenzied amalgamation of the Gancini Galore, the Gancio S and the classic horseshoe Gancini.

Beyond its homage to old-timey Hong Kong and its place as a vessel for showcasing Salvatore Ferragamo’s newest Gancini Iconic-led collection, the Gancini truck is, too, a travelling art gallery. Alongside the brand’s ready-to-wear — showcased stowed on drawers and hung up in fridges — are five commissioned works of art by four local Hong Kong artist: Afa Annfa, Wai Wai, Romain Jacquet Lagrèze and Keith MacGregor. Each in various mediums of expression, be it watercolour, photography or collage. Each a nostalgic love letter to Hong Kong.

Afa Annfa’s Sugar Cubes, courtesy of JPS Art Gallery

Keith MacGregor’s ‘Mong Kok Disco Tailor’ (1978), courtesy of Blue Lotus Gallery

Salvatore Ferragomo’s Gancini ‘Bing Sutt’ truck travels through Hong Kong from 13 to 18 March. Docking stations include Man Mo Temple (13 – 14 March), Queen’s Road Central (15 – 16 March) and Harbour City Pier 3 Parking (17 – 18 March).