I'd be curious to know what the styles are for the 1941 leather-lined bags that folks here think are better quality leather. I have a couple of vintage coach bags with the full grain leather and not lined, so those are definitely keepers, but the more modern styles have appeal too. I like the tactile feel of quality leather and of course the smell, so I do return bags ordered online but am a bit disappointed since I thought the item would feel different.
Is Coach using plastic?
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I'd be curious to know what the styles are for the 1941 leather-lined bags that folks here think are better quality leather. I have a couple of vintage coach bags with the full grain leather and not lined, so those are definitely keepers, but the more modern styles have appeal too. I like the tactile feel of quality leather and of course the smell, so I do return bags ordered online but am a bit disappointed since I thought the item would feel different.
I have over 20 unlined vintage and a handful or so of lined bags. I'm satisfied with the quality of all the bags I currently own but I like the 1941 Dinky in chalk that I got from the outlet and wish I had more of their leather lined bags. Which ones have you sent back?
harmony hobo
troupe tote
courier carryall 23
i only started checking out coach at the tail end of 1941, so i know i've missed many earlier styles.
troupe tote
courier carryall 23
i only started checking out coach at the tail end of 1941, so i know i've missed many earlier styles.
It's OK, there are a lot on the preloved market and lots of them are nwt/nwot!!!harmony hobo
troupe tote
courier carryall 23
i only started checking out coach at the tail end of 1941, so i know i've missed many earlier styles.
According to The Coach Screed, Coach has been using plastic coatings on many of their bags starting 10 or 15 years ago with the ones made in China. Federal labeling laws regarding leather description and content were changed about 20 years ago (I'm going from memory here so don't quote me) and Coach took advantage of the changes to add more plastic content, especially coatings. It explains why so many Coaches from the last 10 or 20 years have been thought to be counterfeit because they smelled and felt like plastic.
THIS, along with the six Salearea Coach Guides posted at the Coach Shopping sub-forum, should be required reading for any Coach buyer, seller and collector, it's VERY long but well worth your time:
and the Salearea Coach Guides, geared more toward vintage lovers. The first 13 posts are mostly background and some of the links in them no longer work but read them anyway. Read the entire thread for even more useful information:
SaleArea guides
Now that ebay is removing the guides they've been hosting for years, those who use those guides have been forced to either save them on their computers or print them. Tonight I found that the Salearea guides (including the Hyacinth/Salearea collaboration ones) have been saved to Salearea's...forum.purseblog.com
I don't care for Coach saffiano leather and that's one of the reasons that I really dislike it when some sellers list vintage textured bags like the Italian-made, vintage Madison bags as saffiano - as though that's a good thing!
Those vintage bags are textured and shiny but the creed states that they are "genuine full-grain leather" that has been "specifically treated to maintain a new appearance over time" and they are not plastic! Like my red Carlyle 4401.
is this also applied to bags aside from coach? particularly about the leather quality (stamped grain instead of actual grain from leather).According to The Coach Screed, Coach has been using plastic coatings on many of their bags starting 10 or 15 years ago with the ones made in China. Federal labeling laws regarding leather description and content were changed about 20 years ago (I'm going from memory here so don't quote me) and Coach took advantage of the changes to add more plastic content, especially coatings. It explains why so many Coaches from the last 10 or 20 years have been thought to be counterfeit because they smelled and felt like plastic.
THIS, along with the six Salearea Coach Guides posted at the Coach Shopping sub-forum, should be required reading for any Coach buyer, seller and collector, it's VERY long but well worth your time:
and the Salearea Coach Guides, geared more toward vintage lovers. The first 13 posts are mostly background and some of the links in them no longer work but read them anyway. Read the entire thread for even more useful information:
SaleArea guides
Now that ebay is removing the guides they've been hosting for years, those who use those guides have been forced to either save them on their computers or print them. Tonight I found that the Salearea guides (including the Hyacinth/Salearea collaboration ones) have been saved to Salearea's...
The Coach Screed specifically applies to Coach. You would have to ask at the appropriate brands' forums if you want the same information about other brands.
Oh definitely! I used to buy a lot of Kate Spade before getting into Coach. And their bags have also become more plasticy over time, both retail and outlet. (And the designs haven't been as whimsical or appealing.)
At this point, I am going with a policy of taking it specific bag by bag to see if I like the quality, since it may even vary by the batch of leather used. I found another harmony hobo that feels way better than the others I had ordered previously, so ended up keeping the new one I snagged.
I'm a binge buyer
so I have forcefully narrowed my taste down to 1) is it full grain full aniline leather?; if so, 2) does it fit my visual and usage requirements? Helps me bottle neck the options haha xI'm a binge buyer
Unfortunately, Coach doesn't make those answers public, and legally, they apparently don't have to. That's why some Coach lovers, like myself, prefer to stick to the true vintage bags when at least we pretty much knew what we were getting, and the types and content of the leather being used was specifically defined by law. Terms in use today like "genuine glove-tanned leather" really don't tell you anything except that there's some leather somewhere in the item, the laws in the US were changed years ago to give the manufacturers a ton of wiggle room. The Coach Screed goes into that in detail. Apparently Coach/Tapestry feels that all other information about leather content is Classified and not for public consumption / none of our damned business.
A sad example is the "Liquid Gloss"material from about 10 years ago. Coach did dozens of styles in a bright, shiny patent leather-looking material that was very popular at the time.
The biggest problem with all those Liquid Gloss styles is that almost every seller or reseller on Ebay or anywhere else described that fabric as "Patent LEATHER" when Coach only called it "Patent", and the Coach website (for a VERY brief time) even said that fabric was "coated fabric". Not real leather, patent or otherwise, although you had to read between the lines to figure that out. Almost any listing you'll find today probably STILL describes it as patent LEATHER.
Here's an old Nordie's page where they correctly describe Liquid Gloss as "patent fabric".
There's a discussion here from "back in the day,", 2011 -
New liquid patent push lock satchel---patent fabric????help!!!
I went to the flagship store on Madison street yesterday......they got a lot of new poppy stuff......I got the liquid patent push lock satchel in cherry with my pce..........it is fabulous IRL!!! The color is amazing.......great for winter and no concern in bad weather!!! Plus it is sooooooo...
forum.purseblog.com
and a later one here:
Coach Factory Online Sale Discussion Thread
Luckily, you only had one extra order. I somehow received several of the same orders. I called and got them to cancel all but the one I wanted, thank God. I could just imagine all those boxes showing up at my door. They really need to fix their website issues. I should've called them instead...
forum.purseblog.com
Back when Liquid Gloss was a current "thing", Coach's website described it as "patent fabric" for a grand total of maybe 2 months (see the Nordies ad). After that, the "fabric" description was dropped and I never saw it again. And neither, apparently, did anyone else. A quick search of Google for "coach liquid gloss patent" turned up two pages of mostly sale and auction listings, all of which referred to the fabric as "patent LEATHER" except for one Chinese site. The first two pages at DuckDuckGo was much the same except for a link to a post at (Surprise surprise!) tPF.
Decoding Coach IM means?
I'm thinking that if I wouldn't notice, I don't really care. No one ever promised us "real metal" on every bag. It's not really different than the coated canvas bags in place of leather...its a choice we make. True it's a choice but if you don't realize that is what is it, then not much of a...
forum.purseblog.com
So Coach has a history of not giving a fat rat's patoot about telling buyers what their bags are actually made of. But hey! They have a STORYPATCH !!!
ETA - Again, for anyone not familiar with the background of this subject, this should be Required Reading:
THE COACH SCREED
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According to The Coach Screed, Coach has been using plastic coatings on many of their bags starting 10 or 15 years ago with the ones made in China. Federal labeling laws regarding leather description and content were changed about 20 years ago (I'm going from memory here so don't quote me) and Coach took advantage of the changes to add more plastic content, especially coatings. It explains why so many Coaches from the last 10 or 20 years have been thought to be counterfeit because they smelled and felt like plastic.
THIS, along with the six Salearea Coach Guides posted at the Coach Shopping sub-forum, should be required reading for any Coach buyer, seller and collector, it's VERY long but well worth your time:
and the Salearea Coach Guides, geared more toward vintage lovers. The first 13 posts are mostly background and some of the links in them no longer work but read them anyway. Read the entire thread for even more useful information:
SaleArea guides
Now that ebay is removing the guides they've been hosting for years, those who use those guides have been forced to either save them on their computers or print them. Tonight I found that the Salearea guides (including the Hyacinth/Salearea collaboration ones) have been saved to Salearea's...
Oh wow, thank you so much for this. I wish I had read it years ago, but better late than never. I own 4 Coach handbags produced in the last decade and I can’t bear to see them anymore with this new knowledge. I feel that I have been scammed. At least I won’t be buying from Coach anymore going forward.
Not specific to Coach but another company I am interested in, mentions “textured leather”. What do you understand by this? Is this good quality leather?
It's not even a legal definition, it just means that it's some unidentified kind of leather that's probably been stamped to give it texture. It tells you absolutely NOTHING about the leather or the tanning or manufacturing process or the quality or how much of it is plastic. It's the same kind of meaningless description that's talked about in the Coach Screed, like "glove tanned" or 'textured". It's smoke and mirrors.
After not having been in a coach outlet store for many years, finally got the chance to go. I remember what the original coach bags felt like and own a 1998 model so was curious what I would find. I looked at and held many of the bags.
The main bag that I was considering for my needs, felt and looked so plasticky, and the handle had that sticky feeling that plastic handbags have when they age and start to melt. just couldn’t see spending over $100 for a bag that I didn’t want to touch. Very disappointing. Just to be sure, asked the SA if it was real leather, she said yes. Having read the coach screed, I know that means leather with paint and plastic.
Although this plastic nonsense is not unique to coach nowadays.
The main bag that I was considering for my needs, felt and looked so plasticky, and the handle had that sticky feeling that plastic handbags have when they age and start to melt. just couldn’t see spending over $100 for a bag that I didn’t want to touch. Very disappointing. Just to be sure, asked the SA if it was real leather, she said yes. Having read the coach screed, I know that means leather with paint and plastic.
Although this plastic nonsense is not unique to coach nowadays.
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