When you start living in a new country or city the first thing you do is inevitably go around and explore the main streets, points of interest, monuments, etc.; which is basically what I did during my first two months in Nicosia. Despite the atrocious temperatures, I was able to walk a lot and soon I discovered that the best places are usually hidden in the most remote and unimaginable streets, usually very narrow and only noticeable if by chance you happen to cross them.
During one of my walks, I decided to enter a Souvenir shop as I wanted to see some postcards and I started chatting with the owner as he was very friendly and chatty with me. So, I decided to “interview” him because what he does and how is unusual and interesting to me.
Manoug is 63 years old, his family has Armenian origins and his background story is not new to my ears. In fact, his father is a refugee from the Occupied part as he was living in the North of Nicosia and during the war he moved to the South of Nicosia and then decided to open this shop. Manoug took his father’s place when he was really young, thus he has been doing this job for all his life. One particular fact about him is that he likes to cycle to the point that every day, instead of using the car as most Cypriots do, he prefers to bike for around one hour in order to get from home to work and vice versa.
But what really astonished me was the collection of colourful wallets that he was selling which later I discovered to be his creations. I asked him to tell me the story of those wallets. Apparently, sewing has always been one of his passions and he has been sewing clothes and other stuff for a very long time. For what concerns the wallets he started making them during Covid time in 2020 and he has not stopped since then; he explained to me that every day it takes around five hours to make one and each one of them is unique, very different from the others. So you do not have to worry about someone else copying your style at all!
He uses different materials and fabrics such as denim, corduroy, silk, etc., with different patterns and of different sizes. You can easily find one that perfectly fits your phone, your cards or whatever you would like to put inside.
Since Manoug is so chatty with his customers he is really interested in getting to know them, when you buy one of his wallets he becomes full of joy and he wants to know everything about your life. As his shop is mostly visited by tourists he is really invested in knowing which countries your wallet will travel to. For this reason, he also created an Instagram page called @manougswallet in which he shares photos of his wallets all around the world that customers send to him. For example, you will find his wallet under the Tour Eiffel, in front of the Taj Mahal, in New York’s Times Square and in a lot of other places.
I already bought my wallet from him and I am waiting to fly to Turin (Italy) to take and send him my photos, I know he would love this.
That is all I collected from him in my interview, but I will definitely see him again just for a chat or to buy some souvenirs. By the way, I started to recommend his shop to everyone I know in Nicosia because he deserves all the support possible, as his work is very difficult and does not pay enough for the labour.
