I finished the rehab of my new-to-me Legacy Thompson Julia Shoulder Bag 11376. The bag cost $498 when it was released in 2008 and came in Ivory, Chestnut, and Mahogany colors - my bag is Mahogany.
I bought it for $40 including shipping on ebay and it was in pretty good condition but it was grubby, stained, spotted, scratched, and misshapen. The legacy striped lining was dirty and spotted, and the bag was missing both of its charms - the distinctive Thompson "Coach" Script circular brass fob, and the studded, whipstitch leather hangtag.
Much thanks to @BeenBurned and @whateve for authenticating the bag and to @Catbird9 for finding information about it on the Wayback Machine - I had tried to find more about it but I struck out, and you don't see much information about the Thompson bags online, so I was really grateful for her assistance.
I wanted to give the bag a bath because it was dirty and out-of-shape, but I was worried that the dark brown color would run and ruin the legacy striped lining. When inspecting the lining I noticed that there were some brown rubbing stains at the seams and corners so I was pretty confident that the color would bleed if it got wet. With help from @Catbird9 I confirmed that this bag was not made of unsealed vachetta leather, although some of the natural Thompson bags and other Legacy bags are vachetta.
I decided to take a chance on dunking it in a bath with Dawn dish soap and the water immediately started turning brown the moment the bag got wet so I gave it a quick bath! I didn't allow the bag to soak and I just kept changing the sudsy water several times and rinsing the bag continusously while working on getting it clean. I got brown some stains on my hands and on the work towels that I used with the bag but happily, it came out clean and the lining wasn't ruined. I let it drain for awhile, stuffed it with towels to reshape, let it dry, conditioned with Leather Therapy and Leather CPR - it was really dry! And then I gave it a light application of Black Rocks and shined up the hardware a bit.
The biggest challenge was dealing with the lost Thompson fobs but I will tell you about that next. In the meantime, here are the before pictures of my Mahogany Legacy Thompson Julia 11376, she really did need some TLC!
I bought it for $40 including shipping on ebay and it was in pretty good condition but it was grubby, stained, spotted, scratched, and misshapen. The legacy striped lining was dirty and spotted, and the bag was missing both of its charms - the distinctive Thompson "Coach" Script circular brass fob, and the studded, whipstitch leather hangtag.
Much thanks to @BeenBurned and @whateve for authenticating the bag and to @Catbird9 for finding information about it on the Wayback Machine - I had tried to find more about it but I struck out, and you don't see much information about the Thompson bags online, so I was really grateful for her assistance.
I wanted to give the bag a bath because it was dirty and out-of-shape, but I was worried that the dark brown color would run and ruin the legacy striped lining. When inspecting the lining I noticed that there were some brown rubbing stains at the seams and corners so I was pretty confident that the color would bleed if it got wet. With help from @Catbird9 I confirmed that this bag was not made of unsealed vachetta leather, although some of the natural Thompson bags and other Legacy bags are vachetta.
I decided to take a chance on dunking it in a bath with Dawn dish soap and the water immediately started turning brown the moment the bag got wet so I gave it a quick bath! I didn't allow the bag to soak and I just kept changing the sudsy water several times and rinsing the bag continusously while working on getting it clean. I got brown some stains on my hands and on the work towels that I used with the bag but happily, it came out clean and the lining wasn't ruined. I let it drain for awhile, stuffed it with towels to reshape, let it dry, conditioned with Leather Therapy and Leather CPR - it was really dry! And then I gave it a light application of Black Rocks and shined up the hardware a bit.
The biggest challenge was dealing with the lost Thompson fobs but I will tell you about that next. In the meantime, here are the before pictures of my Mahogany Legacy Thompson Julia 11376, she really did need some TLC!
