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When Givenchy needs to sell a luxury handbag in China, they call Mr. Bags

This 26-year-old former finance student can make a luxury handbag sell out in minutes.

Chinese consumers buy a full third of all the luxury goods sold across the globe. But they're getting sick of celebrity endorsements.

That's where Mr. Bags comes in.

Mr. Bags (real name: Tao Liang) studied finance in college, following in his parents' footsteps. But his real passion was women's handbags, so he started a blog about it, offering reviews of women's handbags and advice on new trends — stuff you'd see in a fashion magazine.

That's a very crowded field, but his content struck a chord with young Chinese who were getting bored with pushy editorials and cheesy advertising. The blog took off, and within 4 years Mr. Bags has amassed 4 million followers, to become the single most influential voice in the Chinese handbags industry.

And now, he's not just writing about bags; he's also making them. Prestigious design houses like Givenchy and Tod's have signed him up to design limited-run bags for them.

We met with the 26-year-old bagman at his Beijing office to see how's he's flipped the Chinese luxury market on its head.

This segment originally aired August 14, 2018 on VICE News Tonight on HBO.