What's In My Bag! Plus a quick overview of two long-time staple bags...

A bit of a non-beauty side note... I do love me some designer bags, but I'm not the type to keep buying and collecting year after year. It's been five years since my last purchase, and I tend to research and think about each bag for months before taking the plunge. That's because I expect them to last me for decades without going out of style.

So I tend not to go for flashy fancy trend designs that go out of fashion quickly. And I kinda steer away from bags that are too common in my circles. (Cue visuals of the Chanel Boy Bag which was on every other influencer's arm the past few years.) I will opt for interesting colors but mainly in classic shapes, like the Saint Laurent Y Cabas in a luxurious pale beige, and a Balenciaga A4 Papier medium tote because I love the biker grunge elements, but find the City bag waaaaay too common.

More Recent Bag Rescuing at Dr. Bags!

Not makeup, but bags today! 

I wrote last year about trying out Dr. Bags, a specialty designer bag restoration company with pro cleaning, coloring and coating services for premium leather goods. Besides bags, they also restore and recolor shoes, wallets, watch straps, you name it.

I tend to use my bags to death. I'm not the sort to be especially careful or ladylike with my belongings. They are subjected to a good amount of sun, rain, humidity, and tossing around. And that's just the outside. They also frequently suffer from makeup and pen stains - generally everything you do NOT want on an expensive bag. Needless to say, they don't tend to stay pristine looking very long, and I need restoration on a regular basis if I intend to use them for the longer term.

I recently went to get a black Fendi 3Jour restored because I'd used it for about a couple of months and ended up with one or two scuff marks. Very annoying because the marks showed an ashy white on a black surface. I.e. they look incredibly obvious. 

I thought maybe it was just some dirt that got into the leather grain and tried to use damp cloth, wet wipes, hand lotion (you name it) to try and get the marks out.

Black Fendi medium 3Jour, before restoration.

Well, that wasn't the smartest thing to do as I ended up making things ten times worse.

The men in my life got involved. My husband tried his hand at it, and so did my dad. Polishing cloths, leather polish, leather sprays, even a baby toothbrush and baby soap were brought in. Nothing worked. So I figured it was time to call Dr. Bags before we totally destroyed the thing.

I've used their services before so I kinda know what they can do, but I was still pretty surprised when I collected my bag. They'd pretty much removed everything but the worst scuff mark right around the center of the bag in the cleaning/restoring process, without even having to go through the hassle and cost of a recoloring. 

The bag looks almost new. Amazing.

And here it is looking all fresh and spiffy, none the worse for wear. Although I have made a mental note to be more gentle with it from now on...

The other bag I needed major restoration for was a vintage Louis Vuitton satchel that belongs to mom. I swear this bag is probably about 25 years old if not older

. 

It is actually a gorgeous Épi leather satchel in the classic Kenyan Fawn color. Absolutely fashionable right now, if not for the fact that it was discolored, fuzzed all around the edges, and badly stained from mold. 

If you've owned a few LVs you'll know they don't do well in humid countries. They get moldy and start "rotting" and disintegrating quite easily, especially if you don't air them once in a while. This one not only looked a little worse for wear, but the inside was all sticky and mottled with dark patches from mold.

There was a lot of head-shaking and tongue-clucking from the people at Dr Bags when they looked it over. I was so certain they'd met their match LOL.

But I have to say they did it again. My jaw dropped a little when they pulled it out in-store after the restoration. Honestly, it looks pretty much new from the outside now.

The leather is gleaming and the color is so much more vibrant now. I never even thought it could look so much brighter. (More Kenyan Fawn than a strange dull orange Cacao.) The hardware of course is gleaming like new.

And the most amazing thing is the dark mold stains on the inside flap are missing. I'm pretty amazed. 

Even the inner lining has minimal stains left. (And there were big black patches all over when I brought it in.)

You know what this means?
Mom is not going to get it back for awhile cos I'm borrowing it. The beautiful thing about fashion is that every few decades, if you can wait long enough and keep them in good condition, things that have gone out of fashion come right back into fashion.

Like this gorgeous compact satchel. And if you have old bags or second-hand ones sitting around, don't throw them out until you check how much it would cost to restore them. A bit of good restoration might be all you need to pull it out of the closet.

P.S. I have more information on approximate costings in my previous post on Dr Bags, but prices can vary depending on condition and size of your bag, so if you need a consultation check out their site (<-click here) and contact them for a more accurate quotation.

And if you're restoring something, I HIGHLY recommend you get it coated/waterproofed as well. I'm not being paid to say this - it's just my 2 cents. It's much cheaper and easier to prevent damage than to try and repair it later after it's ruined.

Even if the team at Dr Bags seems to be able to work a little magic.

Something A Little Different: Designer Bag Restoration at Dr. Bags!

I love bags. Nearly as much as makeup. 

Carrying the right bag is the equivalent of wearing the right lipstick. It can make a look.

Of course, it's always a much bigger investment when you're talking about a Chanel or Dior or Saint Laurent bag versus a Chanel, Dior, or YSL lipstick. And the more you use a bag, the quicker it gets stained, scuffed, and discolored. Often pretty quickly, if you spend on exotic leather, suede, calf skin or fragile lambskin.

I used to think this was part and parcel of owning a bag. Once it got damaged, it got damaged, and you just had to enjoy it while you could.

And then a few months back a friend told me about Dr. Bags. 

This place is like an aesthetics clinic for your designer bags.

• Protect new bags - You can opt to apply an invisible waterproof silicone HP coating on new bags to prevent damage and stains from water and minor abrasions for up to 8 months. 
• Maintain and Restore used bags - You can deep-clean and restore bags to remove minor stains and fill in minor scratches and scuff marks.
• Overhaul and recolor older bags - If your bag is old and completely discolored, you can get them touched up so they look newer - or get them recolored to a completely different shade!

My Experience

I decided to try out the various Dr Bags services with 2 bags that were perfect "candidates".

1. The first was a lambskin Chloé Bronte bag in a soft blush-taupe shade which was so delicate that I had 2 scuffs on it before I even carried it out for the first time. And it was not waterproof so any droplet of water would absorb into the leather and stain it.
2. The second was old magenta Balenciaga Velo that was stained and discolored to the point where I would never carry it out in polite company. 

Chloé Bronte: HP Coating and Cleaning

If there is one thing I recommend you do for your designer bags, it would be HP coating. It is invisible but repels water and bacteria for months. Don't wait until your bag gets stained and damaged. (Just like skincare, prevention is better than cure.) Repeat wetting and drying and even humidity and rain can cause your leather to dry out and crack very quickly.

I actually splashed water on my Bronte bag to see if it was really waterproof. (I won't lie - my heart almost stopped when I did that because previously, the leather would absorb the water and I had to wait hours for the water stain to fade, and not cause any permanent damage by touching or rubbing it while wet.)

But I waited - and waited. 

And the water didn't go in. Amazed. Now I can bring it out without worrying about rain and moisture. HP coating also prevents colored liquids from staining your bag. You can easily wipe off accidental spills and splashes (coffee, sauces, makeup) easily when you have your HP coating on. Just make sure to refresh your coating every 6-8 months if it's a bag you carry very often.

 

There was also a dark scuff mark from when I'd put the bag down on something, and I'd never been able to remove that mark.

After the cleaning and restoration treatment, it looks pristine.

Basic coatings cost around $150 per bag and can take maybe around a week.

You can also bring in your precious Louboutins and Jimmy Choos (all shoes, boots, and other leather goods) for HP coating so they stay pristine much longer.

Balenciaga Velo: ColourPro Colouring

For my poor beat-up Balenciaga which was stained and discolored from a bright magenta to a grey-prune tone, I decided to try out the ColourPro coloring treatment. This is perfect if you have a bag that's so old that it's no longer the color it used to be, or a stain that can't be removed completely with regular cleaning or restoration.

Dr. Bags offers a huge variety of colors, although the general advice for best results is that you can only go deeper, not lighter. That said, I've seen many people do a complete "white-out" and recolor their bags from another color, so discuss it with the team and see what the recommendations are.