If that lightness in color is due to dryness, then some good rounds of conditioning *will* restore some of the richness to the brown.
That brown bag in my early posts --- I originally thought it was supposed to be British Tan. Once conditioned, it returned to what I now realize was the original rich mahogany.
And as I replied to someone earlier, don't panic if the newly dried bag still feels really stiff. Just condition, condition, condition.
I also believe what you're saying about a sorority wanting Coach.
My first introduction to Coach was actually during graduate school, in the mid nineties. A good friend of mine (who was also a fellow grad student) used to tell me how her mother only wanted Coach, and my friend and her many siblings used to pool their money to buy their mother Coach bags for birthday/Christmas. She used to show me the Coach in the Macy's display case, and they were these very same bags of thick, unlined leather, that we're now rehabbing and calling "vintage". 
But I have to say, my friend's mother was absolutely right. 
.
The whole goal was to alleviate the horror people feel when they first hear, "Put the leather into soapy water". 
Yep.