The other day i looked at my aurora veneta and noticed the edges were black - yes black with dirt.

This was a bit upsetting as you can imagine. However, thanks to advice from a high end shoe store in BH (Arturo's) and our resident expert, BV.luxury, i was able to get most of the marks off.

Arturo's recommended a product called Shu-Glo - which is a silicone based product which is designed to "emulsify marks and stains;" and Cadillac Boot & Shoe Care (without wax) for moisturizing and weather proofing.

Unfortunately TPF doesn't support HTML tags/tables.... you'll have to take out that formatting for that to display!

Here is the before

(Jane, thanks, i have been sitting here trying to figure out how to upload these pix)

First i rubbed a little Shu-Glo on the dirt marks using an old cotton t-shirt. They got worse. As the leather got wet, the dirt got darker and it was horrible looking.

Then because the silicone seemed to make the leather dry, i applied the cadillac boot and shoe care. Rubbed the excess into the leather using another old cotton t-shirt.

Again, while the leather was wet - it looked as if i had made things worse.

Now the leather has dried a bit and hopefully you can see that the black marks are much much reduced. Tomorrow it will look even better (I did this with the handles the other day). The marks won't completely disappear, but at least my veneta looks presentable again.

Please if any of you have tried other techniques that reduce dirt marks, or get rid of dye transfer - especially on the untreated edges of the woven pieces - would love to hear about it.... and see your results.

Actually, now that I am looking back at the photos, it is really hard to see the difference. I promise you though that the bag looks better now post treatment. i am not crazy, really.....

a friend mentioned about using staedler white eraser and she was successful in removing ballpoint pen marks on hermes clemence leather, also dirt marks on toile evelyne. i will try it on my limo veneta to see if i can thoroughly remove the remaining blue jean color transfer marks. hope this works with BV delicate nappa too!

I think the marks look better, but this is why I sent back my Roma in marmo, I was too afraid of getting it dirty...I'm not very careful.

sum - i am going to try the staedler white eraser as i have one little pen mark. i have also read that mr. clean magic eraser sponges work well on toile, but don't know whether it would for leather.

rere - i know what you mean, but the light bags are so beautiful for the warm weather....

I think the marks really look a lot better! Thanks for posting this for us. I have an aurora veneta too, so its good to know what I can do if I ever have a problem.

Give it a good chance to dry out, doloresmia. It already looked better to me. All used bags show a darkening (except nero and maybe ebano) in areas of use. It is not necessary for my bags to remain "new looking", I just really want them to age well, and look even more beautiful for having been broken-in. That is one of the reasons that I stick with the more intense colors (which actually do darken slightly), and save the light colors for exotic skins which are often treated or naturally resist water/oils from handling. I have been wearing my Regent Veneta all summer, and the edges are slightly darkened in the same way that your Veneta's edges darkened... it is just not really noticeable. Thanks for the tips on cleaning!

doloresmia, oh my!!! so sorry to hear about your run in with that nasty reality called dirt. glad to hear it is looking better. may i ask, did you pretreat your bag at all before wearing it?? i have an aurora veneta as well, and am wondering how much i need to baby it. (i did treat mine w/ leather conditioner and waterproofing spray when i first got it)

baggiana - like you, i don't need my bags to remain new looking. i just didn't want it to look filthy. again, i think no one but me would have noticed it - since no one but me really looks that closely actually....

kcm1535 - i did not pretreat my aurora - in fact my SA at the time told me explicitly not to - however, i did one treatment with the cadillac lotion on my ferro new pyramid - but haven't worn it yet so don't know whether it will repell dirt. in any case it is a dark bag so won't show dirt. do you find the leather conditioner and waterproofing has helped protect the aurora? did it affect the feel of the leather?

has anyone tried armorall on their bags? My DH insists that it will take marks off. however, i am not ready for him to experiment with my lovely veneta.

doloresmia, i've pretreated all of my bags and have never noticed a difference in the leather. I usually use Apple Guard conditioning lotion first, then Collonil waterproofing spray (the same brand that Mulberry recommends). All of my bags still look brand new, but I do baby them a bit (don't ever let them sit on the floor, etc.). As for the Aurora in particular, I haven't worn it yet...have been meaning too, but too many other BVs to pick from at this point ... will be sure to do so before the end of the warm weather, and will keep you posted!

thanks kcm1535, can't wait for you to use your aurora. my DH LOVES mine, so i don't switch around