Coach Rehab and Rescue Club

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#44,402
Tilis said:
I was tempted, but also have bought 2 new bags this year already :). One Dooney and one Portland (inspired by whateve). both green, as I have given up on finding an affordable truly green Coach. I'm now concentrating on trying to find a pre-creed Coach, but it does not look promising either :angel:
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Looking is fun! But the trouble is, I keep finding. And then I have to buy it. My rehab and get busy and sell-on-ebay bag piles are to the moon and back. A lot of times I'll find something great by using a photo of a bag I like and doing an image search. This captures people selling a bag they don't know what it is, and you can find amazing bargains. It's how I found my blue courier. I also like this search engine: https://gem.app/search?terms=vintage coach bottle green&sort=priceLowToHigh
 
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#44,404
pjfirst said:
Hello hello! I recently received this bag that’s in pretty good condition overall (has the beautiful striped satin lining on the inside and calf hair on the outside). Hoping to get some suggestions on how best to get the dents out of the back of the bag and reshape it so it’s smooth again. Pic shows dented left, relatively smooth right.
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Stuff with towels and put in a steamy room, like your bathroom when you take a shower. Or put your towels in the dryer and when they are hot, stuff your bag with them. Use a hairdryer while reshaping the corner.

Basically heat or steam.
 
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#44,405
Tilis said:
I was tempted, but also have bought 2 new bags this year already :). One Dooney and one Portland (inspired by whateve). both green, as I have given up on finding an affordable truly green Coach. I'm now concentrating on trying to find a pre-creed Coach, but it does not look promising either :angel:
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I bought a Dooney in December and the Portland in January. I'd love to see the bags you got.

It's super hard to find an affordable pre creed bag. I got mine many years ago before prices got outrageous. The most expensive was $100. I regret selling my mini Safari. I didn't even get very much for it as they weren't selling for a lot back then.
 
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#44,407
Okay, I did a stupid thing with one of my vintage Coach bags. Many years ago, when I should have known better, but I scrubbed the front flap of this navy Stewardess. As in, scrubbed it with a brush. I tried Leather CPR after I realized the damaged I caused with only momentary improvement. The bag remained very faded, leading me to conclude that, in my zeal, I scrubbed away the dye.

For years, I have intended to give this bag away because I don't love the distressed look it has now. (Not helped when my cat decided to use it as a scratching post (!), either). But I could just never part with this bag! It was the first Coach bag I ever got bought.

So - is there any hope for getting some color back into this bag? Without dyeing or painting it? Any type of leather conditioner I could try? Thanks in advance for any suggestions! And I understand if the only solution accept the bag as it is now.

IMG_9644.webp
 
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#44,408
moreau_md said:
Okay, I did a stupid thing with one of my vintage Coach bags. Many years ago, when I should have known better, but I scrubbed the front flap of this navy Stewardess. As in, scrubbed it with a brush. I tried Leather CPR after I realized the damaged I caused with only momentary improvement. The bag remained very faded, leading me to conclude that, in my zeal, I scrubbed away the dye.

For years, I have intended to give this bag away because I don't love the distressed look it has now. (Not helped when my cat decided to use it as a scratching post (!), either). But I could just never part with this bag! It was the first Coach bag I ever got bought.

So - is there any hope for getting some color back into this bag? Without dyeing or painting it? Any type of leather conditioner I could try? Thanks in advance for any suggestions! And I understand if the only solution accept the bag as it is now.

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It’s a special bag and your first — of course you can’t part with it! This crowd has surely saved worse. I’ll let the more experienced weigh in on color restoration. But kitty’s scratches look like candidates to at least try @LunaSilver ‘s and @LadaZuri ‘s Hot Spoon Trick. Good luck!
 
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#44,410
Tilis said:
I was tempted, but also have bought 2 new bags this year already :). One Dooney and one Portland (inspired by whateve). both green, as I have given up on finding an affordable truly green Coach. I'm now concentrating on trying to find a pre-creed Coach, but it does not look promising either :angel:
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I just bought my first glue-in registration — it’s a rehab (hopefully basic, will know when it arrives) and even that was not inexpensive. But a style I’ve wanted.
 
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#44,411
moreau_md said:
Okay, I did a stupid thing with one of my vintage Coach bags. Many years ago, when I should have known better, but I scrubbed the front flap of this navy Stewardess. As in, scrubbed it with a brush. I tried Leather CPR after I realized the damaged I caused with only momentary improvement. The bag remained very faded, leading me to conclude that, in my zeal, I scrubbed away the dye.

For years, I have intended to give this bag away because I don't love the distressed look it has now. (Not helped when my cat decided to use it as a scratching post (!), either). But I could just never part with this bag! It was the first Coach bag I ever got bought.

So - is there any hope for getting some color back into this bag? Without dyeing or painting it? Any type of leather conditioner I could try? Thanks in advance for any suggestions! And I understand if the only solution accept the bag as it is now.

View attachment 6151573
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Maybe try black saddle soap first and see if that helps. If not Leather Honey is miraculous for dark bags.
 
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#44,412
squeakyrose said:
It’s a special bag and your first — of course you can’t part with it! This crowd has surely saved worse. I’ll let the more experienced weigh in on color restoration. But kitty’s scratches look like candidates to at least try @LunaSilver ‘s and @LadaZuri ‘s Hot Spoon Trick. Good luck!
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Oh, the hot spoon trick is new to me! I will give that a shot!
chowlover2 said:
Maybe try black saddle soap first and see if that helps. If not Leather Honey is miraculous for dark bags.
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Those are both new to me, so I will give them a shot! I

Thank you both, I appreciate your time!
 
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#44,413
Leather Honey is absolutely amazing bring color back to dark bags. You don’t want to use it on light bags as it can really highlight flaws. That said I used it on a beat up Bal tote that was a pale peach when I got it. 2 coats of Leather Honey later and it was bright orange. Lucky for me no flaws. I wish I had pics but I had forgotten, and sold the bag awhile back.it restores moisture which is a huge cause of color loss.

I have heard Chamberlain’s Leather cream is good for scratches. It is expensive and I have never tried it. Also haven’t had any badly scratched up bags either to try it out.
 
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#44,414
Hi everyone, I spent the weekend reading through this thread and I am in awe about what some of you are able to do!

I would love some input on this brown city bag, it was described as being in good condition and not worn often. When I received it, the leather was quite dry and discoloured, the edging is breaking in multiple spots and I have no idea what caused the white stains on the inside. I paid $38 for it and now I am wondering if I should rather return it. But I live in Europe where vintage coach bags are hard to find, which tempts me to keep it

I was expecting to just rehab it with some saddle soap and conditioner but that is no longer realistic haha IMG_8719.webp
 

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#44,415
LilyM. said:
Hi everyone, I spent the weekend reading through this thread and I am in awe about what some of you are able to do!

I would love some input on this brown city bag, it was described as being in good condition and not worn often. When I received it, the leather was quite dry and discoloured, the edging is breaking in multiple spots and I have no idea what caused the white stains on the inside. I paid $38 for it and now I am wondering if I should rather return it. But I live in Europe where vintage coach bags are hard to find, which tempts me to keep it

I was expecting to just rehab it with some saddle soap and conditioner but that is no longer realistic haha
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Oh boy. While I completely understand your reluctance to take a pass on a vintage Coach bag which are hardly abundant here in Europe, I do want to caution you just so you have a better idea of what you might be getting into with this one.
This bag has been through it and from the looks of it has been repainted with something that has partially worn off. My guess is that it's most likely shoe polish as it so often is and that alone would pose a number of problems for you.
First of all shoe polish is not meant to be used on bags and will wear off, staining your clothes in the process. It's not a great idea to try and simply cover the whole bag with a paint or dye if you haven't prepped the leather first and it still has some mystery product on which may be incompatible with whatever you plan to apply on top.
Your best option would most likely be to first give it a wash and see how much of it you can get off with good old dish soap and water and as a next step go in with acetone if a regular dunk and wash doesn't do much to remove it. But acetone is a harsh chemical and will affect the whole bag and the condition of the original tan/surface treatment underneath the polish/mystery product. And because a part of the bag is so dark you probably don't have a clear idea why the bag was previously painted and if there are discolorations that become evident once you remove whatever was used on it. Plus in my experience shoe polish can also smooth over surface damage, so there could be other surprises in store.
I have worked on two vintage Coach bags in the past few months that were to my horror covered in shoe polish by the previous owner (which was undisclosed). Those two were black to begin with and so I didn't have as hard a time dyeing them back to black once I was done as one would with a brown bag. So once you have fully cleaned the bag it would likely require more than just leather conditioner and need some type of dye to even out the tone and to cover areas which may be stripped of color.
The damage on the piping is luckily not extensive and there are products such as leather filler that are meant to camouflage such surface damage as rips and holes. I can't be sure based on the photos, but if you're seeing white dusty looking stains inside the bag, this might me mold.

This is not to scare you off, but just to make you ask yourself if you're ready for the challenge it may pose, especially as your first rehab. If you think about the products that you might need to work on this and how much it might come to on top of the price of the bag. Not to mention the amount of time and work it may need to get there. But if you decide to take on that challenge this forum will surely be here for you to support you through your struggles.
 
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