My Aquamarine GGH is falling apart - is this normal?

Kamilla850

Kamilla850

O.G.
Mar 3, 2007
3,750
4
#1
I purchased my first Bbag a few months ago so please excuse my ignorance of the 'wearing in' effects. I have been wearing this bbag consistently for the past 3 weeks, and I recently noticed a lot of threads coming out of the handles and I am just curious if this is normal and happens to all you bbag owners. I respect my bags and I certainly don't abuse them, although I do treat this bbag a bit more roughly because I feel that it is a rugged bag and is built to be used, not just to be admired in a dust bag. So here are a few of my photos, please let me know if I need to start being more gentle or if this is actually a normal part of the bag being worn in. I will be selling it one day so I certainly don't want the worn in effects to affect the sale price. Does Balenciaga offer any kind of services for this type of wear? TIA!
 

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#2
WOW.. the second pic looks bad. I don't have a GH bag so please get others opinions but I think you need to take it back to the place you bought it and see what they say.
 
#3
I agree with Elliemay... the 2nd picture is totally NOT normal... that needs to be taken in.. I have a GH city & day .. the threading you see in your other photos that come off along the sides of the mended parts in your last photo.. has happened to me.. but instead of pulling it off.. I just cut it off.. that way it doesn't continue on to thread. Can you take your bag back where you purchased it?
 
#4
I'm going to take it back to Barneys, which is where I purchased it from. I was quite suprised to see this happening because I have always considered Bal a very high quality product, and since I have only worn it about 2 dozen times since I purchased it, I wouldn't think that it would start falling apart so soon.
 
#5
oh no!! given the times you've carried it, it should still not look this way. the bag should not ever look like pic #2 as you pay a great deal for bbags and they should hold up better. there is slight wear with my older bags where the thread comes out a slight bit this usually happens after almost a year of carrying.

i would take it back to the store you purchased it from and see if it can be sent in to be redone.
 
#7
I thought the handles were supposed to be braided with leather, not a rope like material. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've never seen handles like that. Is this how all bbags are, or just giant bags?
 
#8
holy cow, i've never seen anything like that before. balenciaga should be able to repair it for free if you purchased the bag from there.
 
#10
purplekicks said:
I thought the handles were supposed to be braided with leather, not a rope like material. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've never seen handles like that. Is this how all bbags are, or just giant bags?
Click to expand...

Actually, all Motorcycle B-Bags' handles are braided with what is best described as "waxed shoestring". The braiding is always made of rope-like material, never of leather (that happens only in fakes, actually!). Known issues of the braiding are usually that the rope-like material tends wear off, exactly like a shoestring when you use it a lot: it fades and some threads come apart, or the color wears off.

I've never seen anything like Picture #2 happening, but maybe - I say maybe - it is just the loose end of the braiding that has "come out" of the handle, maybe it just needs to be tucked back inside.

Unfortunately, being a B-Bag junkie, I can testify that Balenciagas are indeed quite fragile for some aspects. Some leather batches tend to peel, the edges tend to come apart a little, allowing the (white) inside part of the leather to be seen, etc. etc.

I use my B-Bags a lot, even if I do not abuse them at all, and I have come to accept the effect of aging on my bags - even if I sigh every time I discover an imperfection on them. Certainly, compared to other high-end bags, the divine B-leather tends to scratch easily, or the whole bag can be deformed by heavy weights, or the color on the corners fades quickly if the bag is rubbed, say, to the body. This does not diminish my love for these bags, although for the everyday heavy-duty I use a Botkier Trigger which is 4-5 years old and which I guess - at this point - in totally undestructable!
 
#13
I have the same problem as pictures # 3, 4,& 5. The thread on my handle started to come out here & there. But that happened after almost 2 years of usage & took the bag for travelings. I was just wondering...should I use the LMB for handles only to minimize or even prevent this problem?
 
#14
I forgot to mention that the thin wisps of thread fraying is common. It happens to me after only very short-term use. I find it annoying, but tolerable because I simply trim them regularly. It keeps happening, btw, so I have to trim them once or twice a month or so when I'm wearing a bag regularly, day in day out (which is what I tend to do). DON'T pull them ... that can actually cause damage.
 
#15
I stopped by Barneys today with my bag. They told me that if the bag was purchased within 6 months that they will send it back to Balenciaga and they will repair free of charge. The SA told me that it looks like the glue that keeps the rope in the handle has come apart which is what happened in pic #2. The bad thing is that this normally takes 6-8 weeks so I won't have my bag for a few weeks. Oh well, I think it's worth it for Balenciaga to fix it rather than taking it to a leather repair shop. The SA was a bit suprised by the amount of threads coming out in such a short time period. I will keep you guys posted! Thanks for everyone's comments.

Frau - thanks for the clarification. I was starting to worry that my bag was not authentic based on purplekicks comments about the leather rope in the handles. Although I know that this bag is authentic since I purchased it from Barneys.
 
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