Woman wants a handbag made out of her own skin: 'It's part of me and I want to keep it'

Handbags made of exotic skins have always been a point of controversy in the fashion industry.

And Joan, a 55-year-old woman from Manchester, just expanded the definition of exotic skins with her "odd" request.

She wants a handbag made from her own skin.

Her solicitation went viral after a blog post by Boris Hodakel, the founder of Sewport -- an online marketplace of designers and manufacturers -- reposted her unusual request, along with her mock-up today (Feb 21).

"It's looking very likely that I'm going to have my lower left leg amputated soon, and I was reading about the human waste scandal where they just dumped body parts in a dump to rot and I don't want that to happen to me," wrote Joan, who has peripheral arterial disease.

Joan revealed that she had a lightbulb moment to "use her amputated leg to create something beautiful and useful" while she was chatting to a friend about leather and how "it's essentially just treated animal skin."

"If I do get to keep my leg [after the surgery], I'd like to have a professional already lined up to make it into a handbag," wrote Joan, adding exact details of how she wants the handbag to look like.

Her budget? A whopping £3,000 (S$5,500) which she "hopes is enough."

While some may say 'ew, gross!' or call her "crazy," she opined, "it's part of me and I want to keep it."

And if this story sounds like fake news, a representative from Sewport has confirmed with AsiaOne that "it is 100 per cent genuine -- as bizarre as it is."

The rep added that a manufacturer has not been found yet.

Hodakel also revealed in the blog post that Joan got in touch with Sewport after seeing the request from the lady who wanted the dress made from her deceased mother's hair, and was inspired to do something similar.

Is a human skin handbag something you would ever consider carrying?

lynette@asiaone.com