Clemence - Can It Withstand Rain, Moisture, etc...?

bagpunk

bagpunk

Member
Oct 31, 2006
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#1
I carry and wear of leather gears in the rain and they survived fine. Lately I have been hearing that I should not have done that. So now I am nervous.

I have never owned any clemence - so far - and am wondering, can it survive the rain?

I know that the sensible thing to do is not to take it under the rain, and to protect it as much as we can from the elements.

But I suppose in life we can't always do what is ideal and we often get caught in all sorts of situations. I don't want to end up serving my bags (no matter how expensive they are), I want them to serve me :yes:

Does clemence do OK if/when it accidentally caught in the rain? How about skin moisture?

For those who are in hot and humid places, do you find your clemence holding up OK?

Or should I start looking at researching leather protection and care products for clemence...?

As I mentioned in another thread, I am planing to be rather active with my bags in the near future, and this always means skin moisture and rain.

Thank you!
 
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#2
I have been accidentally on occasion out in the rain with my Clemence Evelyne & Birkin & it just wiped off fine.I'm not saying I'd do it all the time since I try to be careful with my bags.DH actually fears more the rain on my bags than I do.
 
#3
Clemence is an all-weather leather. When I get raindrops on my bag, I just wipe with a cloth & the leather is fine. I would leave it out to air overnight before storing it back in its box.
 
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#4
Thanks for your inputs! I am glad to hear this.

Clemence is definitely on my list :yes:

I used to carry a Balenciaga bag (I really like them for their relaxed and bright happy popping colours) and there are lots of chatter about not getting it wet even at the slightest. I was caught in a drizzle with mine once. Droplets of water fell on it. Wet dark spots began to appear. I wiped them as soon as I could. It no longer had water beads on it, but the dark wet spots were still there. From my past experience, I was confident that these would disappear as soon as they dried up. And they did.

I concluded that with most leather, only if we do not wipe them straight away that they might leave permanent marks (if water beads are left there too long). A bit like water marks on stainless steel I thought.

I have the same experience with other leather bags. So sometimes I am a tad confused over the terror expressed followed by life-or-death applications of lots of protective products on bags.

I heard that clemence is a very hardy leather that folks can be a bit more relaxed carrying. I am hoping to explore how relaxed I can imagine myself to be carrying a clemence bag one day.
 
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#5
bagpunk said:
I carry and wear of leather gears in the rain and they survived fine. Lately I have been hearing that I should not have done that. So now I am nervous.

I have never owned any clemence - so far - and am wondering, can it survive the rain?

I know that the sensible thing to do is not to take it under the rain, and to protect it as much as we can from the elements.

But I suppose in life we can't always do what is ideal and we often get caught in all sorts of situations. I don't want to end up serving my bags (no matter how expensive they are), I want them to serve me :yes:

Does clemence do OK if/when it accidentally caught in the rain? How about skin moisture?

For those who are in hot and humid places, do you find your clemence holding up OK?

Or should I start looking at researching leather protection and care products for clemence...?

As I mentioned in another thread, I am planing to be rather active with my bags in the near future, and this always means skin moisture and rain.

Thank you!
Click to expand...

Accidental rain is OK. Just wipe it dry. Please don't abuse the bag. If you need to walk through some heavy downpour, bring a plastic bag to put it in. Whenever I should be caught in an unexpected rain at my H store, the SAs would hurriedly fetch the orange paper bag put my bag in.

In humid countries, there is the concern of mould because of the humidity. And I have had mould on one of my bags before. I cleaned it up and bought a dehumidifier. And I have not had that happen again.

I would never recommend water-proofing Hermes bags. As for leather care for Clemence, use what the H craftsmen use at the stores. Maltonian, for example.
 
#6
hi mrs s. fortunately, i am not in the habit of abusing my bags. i can really baby them, but i found that this takes too much out of me, and mostly i ended up not carrying the bags i am too frightened to ruin.

i am not used to hot humid climate and perspire a lot. and of course the rain around here is tropical! as in deluge! down pour! felt like someone threw a bucket of water at you.

in colder dryer climates i am usually more active, as in walking everywhere etc, so at times i still do have skin moisture against my leather gears. this has not been an issue so far because the dryer climates helped the skin not to remain moist for too long. also, rain in this kind of climate is also usually limited to what we consider mere drizzle in the tropics (nothing like tropical rain!!).

so my concern over weather - at the moment - is limited to light rain. i don't normally brave the rain in the tropics unless someone drag me kicking and screaming :P (mistakenly once i thought i could walk through one and i was absolutely drenched. being that damp and having to enter airconditioned places was no picnic!). i would normally just wait it up.

so it is good to know that clemence can withstand "sensible" rain.

it is on my list for sure now :yes:
 
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#7
Leather is an organic material - if you carry it through a downpour, of course it will get affected it the water is not dried off promptly and the bag left to air out. And if you hands are damp constantly, that will also affect the leather. I have carried my clemence bag through snow storms with no ill effects (drying it as soon as possible). I would NOT do this with box leather, barenia, VN, suede, and a number of other leathers.

On really bad weather days, why not just have a coated canvas or knock around bag? Hermes bags are lovely and extremely well made but I wouldn't carry them through a monsoon.
 
#8
i don't drive and i get caught in the weather a lot....

i think drying it off straight away is important. i always do this, and always managed to maintain my leather reasonably well. so far.

thanks again!
 
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#10
If rain is expected, it is best to leave any H bag at home, IMO. A few drops of rain on clemence that are quickly wiped away should be OK though. I just wouldn't want it to happen regularly.
 
#12
On the advice of other tpfers, have invested in a couple of Longchamps pliages which I keep inside my bags just in case of rain. (If I'm in the car and it starts to rain - I just switch my essentials to the pliage.)
 
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#13
While we are talking rain i am in a very wet scotland, how is box i know you should not use in rain but if you got caught what would happen, would love to try box but dont know if i would ever get chance to use it
 
#14
I just got caught in a drizzle today with my clemence bag... ran from my car to the house and there was no damage.

Like MrsS says, I would never take my bags (or myself!) out in a downpour, but if I was caught in an unexpected drizzle, I would not be too concerned. Just wiping it dry will do the trick.

Clemence is much tougher than we give it credit for. ;)
 
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