Coach Rehab and Rescue Club

[Belicious]

One more story. I found a really rare (pretty decrepit shape) hasp bag on shopgoodwill. Won the auction. Dunked, rehabbed, the works. It was much improved! People from that online group discussed my bag and freaked the heck out about it and wrote me many, many hate letters. All because I shared this cute picture of dunk in process. People are crazy. In my book, dunking is an absolutely great and helpful technique.

AMEN to that! Love dunking. I have dunked literally hundreds of bags. The only ones that didn't work out were: a modern signature C print pouch thingie where the brown leather edging color ran into the fabric, and the other was a Dooney where the edging literally self distructed in water. Must've been made out of paper!

I have come across that don't dunk advice in the subreddit about vintage Coach rehab too. I don't understand it at all! They are almost always significantly improved with a dunk except for with big ink stains or if they are actually moldy and you don't realize.

 

[ConnieinSeattle]

Here's a rehab bag (for someone!) Seller description: "small wear on strap."

 

[Narnanz]

I'm very surprised it held up....Small Wear On Strap!!!!.....understatement.

 

[ConnieinSeattle]

I'm very surprised it held up....Small Wear On Strap!!!!.....understatement.

I'm thinking of getting the bag (it's very low priced) and just replacing the strap.

 

[Michelle1x]

I'm thinking of getting the bag (it's very low priced) and just replacing the strap.

it doesn't look like that strap is original anyway - THEY took another orangey strap from a different bag and cut it and sewed over the brass loops, which is why it didn't hold up.

 

[Belicious]

it doesn't look like that strap is original anyway - THEY took another orangey strap from a different bag and cut it and sewed over the brass loops, which is why it didn't hold up.

Yeah cut their disaster straps off and replace it with one that clips on with a dog leash clip or something.

 

[ConnieinSeattle]

Sticky unknown substance came off with black saddle soap.

 

[ConnieinSeattle]

Yeah cut their disaster straps off and replace it with one that clips on with a dog leash clip or something.

If anyone wants it, here's the link! https://poshmark.com/listing/Black-...oulder-strap-Chelsea-669e983cf33f71f092fb2246 $12

 

[whateve]

I'm thinking of getting the bag (it's very low priced) and just replacing the strap.

It would be easier than normal as you wouldn't need to match the color.

 

[whateve]

it doesn't look like that strap is original anyway - THEY took another orangey strap from a different bag and cut it and sewed over the brass loops, which is why it didn't hold up.

It might be the original. It's hard to tell in those pictures.

 

[ConnieinSeattle]

Hi! I got this mae hobo on shopgoodwill.com. Help from the hive mind? What color product can I use to cover up those scratches. I think this bag color is called "saddle." But, not sure! Any ideas greatly appreciated. Dye, acryllic paint, anything. The idea is to match the color and make it look better. The bag is actually in a really nice condition overall. What a ginormous, beautiful bag!! And such a deal! I got it for $10, with 1-cent shipping. It's a 36026 from 2015. ETA: Doing research here, I read about Meltonian "London Tan" cream. Do the experienced here think that might work with this color bag? They also have a color called "saddle."

 

[vw65vert]

Hi! I got this mae hobo on shopgoodwill.com. Help from the hive mind? What color product can I use to cover up those scratches. I think this bag color is called "saddle." But, not sure! Any ideas greatly appreciated. Dye, acryllic paint, anything. The idea is to match the color and make it look better. The bag is actually in a really nice condition overall. What a ginormous, beautiful bag!! And such a deal! I got it for $10, with 1-cent shipping. It's a 36026 from 2015. ETA: Doing research here, I read about Meltonian "London Tan" cream. Do the experienced here think that might work with this color bag? They also have a color called "saddle."

My favorite bag, my everyday bag in black that I carry all the time, and bought brand new from a department store, love me my large 36026 Nomad hobo. The color is indeed Saddle. Coach changed the name to the Mae hobo about a year after its release, don't know why. Congratulations, you got a exceptional deal on a wonderful bag.

 

[ConnieinSeattle]

My favorite bag, my everyday bag in black that I carry all the time, and bought brand new from a department store, love me my large 36026 Nomad hobo. The color is indeed Saddle. Coach changed the name to the Mae hobo about a year after its release, don't know why. Congratulations, you got a exceptional deal on a wonderful bag.

This bag is cool! Yours in black is beautiful! I bought the Meltonian "london tan" cream, we'll see how it matches. I held the bag up to my computer screen and looked at all the colors offered. They do have a color called saddle in the cream, but london tan looked closest to the bag color.

 

[Lake Effect]

Hello,

If there a consolidated go to guide for restoring? I have some bags I want to clean up but have read so much conflicting information, I am not sure what is what. On the FB VCC, they are adamant that any "dunking" completely ruins a bag. Which if Coach supposedly dunks their bags, then no one can answer me that Coach restored bags are ruined. All people can say is that deb the restorer says 20-30% of the bags are lost to dunking. Then I watch vintage coach collector who washes in bags in the sink and dyes her bags, which all look amazing.

I can understand why soaking a bag in water can damage it. But does just doing a good scrub with ph neutral soap and a quick rinse in the sink that bad? Some of these bags are super gross. I don't want to ruin the bags

Hi angi here on the forum there is no one guide; we are just a group of enthusiasts that share our hobby of vintage Coach bags. This can be confusing for newbies. I have a few suggestions. I do recommend you use the search feature for katev’s posts. She gives a lot of details on her process. I have been at this for 8 years (time flies !) and have dunked many bags and have shared my process as well, if you care to search my older posts. You can see what we have done and make up your own mind.
I started my deep dive into vintage Coach by purchasing two bags, cheap that were water stained and smelled of mildew, at a flea market, with the purpose of using them to experiment on this wild idea of dunking them. Cheap beat up bags may hard to find, but I find them to be a good way to see what products do for bags. I do not recommend someone start out on an expensive or holy grail bag.
Ironically I had stumbled onto Deb’s old blog, Sacsmagnifique, or something like that back then where she went into a lot of detail on rehabbing. Before I found tPF. And showed bags soaking in her bathtub. And when she was affiliated with Coach and did this promo video for Coach, she showed this barn rehab studio to die for with a dunking setup! And I respect that as time goes by in rehabbing she may be less inclined about dunking these days. Not being disrespectful, just stating facts here. People are allowed to change and I get that.
I respect anyone’s opinion, but when a group of like minded people insist their way is the only way, it leaves no room for polite discussion or the idea, we agree to disagree. At least someone could say, you know, if you are interested in dunking, which we don’t prefer, why don’t you check out tPF.

One more story. I found a really rare (pretty decrepit shape) hasp bag on shopgoodwill. Won the auction. Dunked, rehabbed, the works. It was much improved! People from that online group discussed my bag and freaked the heck out about it and wrote me many, many hate letters. All because I shared this cute picture of dunk in process. People are crazy. In my book, dunking is an absolutely great and helpful technique.

Letters?? Wow, I would love to have some of the energy and free time that takes (for other uses!) It’s a leather bag for Pete’s sake!

 

[ConnieinSeattle]

Letters?? Wow, I would love to have some of the energy and free time that takes (for other uses!) It’s a leather bag for Pete’s sake!

I had the bag for sale on ebay, and the nastiness was sent to me by way of private messages in the guise of "questions" about what I had done to the bag and commenting rudely on a brief video I shared of my process. (Now that I've revealed my secrets they can go buy their own hasp bag for $20 and so happy they don't have to buy mine.) The answer there is easy, you can block buyers. Which I did. A lot. Some of them were so really incredibly negative energy and venomous. One person contacted me just to tell me that they were discussing me there in a negative way, and she thought I'd want to know! No, I don't. So, I don't explore that group. People here share ideas and appear basically sane. And positive energy. Which I like!