Is this just cracking dry leather or.. gasp.. Mold?!?

[ManilaMama]

Hello, TPF! How are you all doing?

I have a tan Pepe (sheepskin) Givenchy Pandora bag. I got it around 2012 and used it for over a year! And then it went into rotation, being stored in its dust bag and cleaned and checked regularly. I used it again today. When I pulled her out she looked fine. Nice and soft and smooth leather. I applied some leather conditioner all over her this morning just for kicks and used her in the afternoon. In the car I noticed some weirdness in the bottom of the bag.

Is it cracking? Is it super dried up? Is it (please no no no) is it mold? Can anyone help me?

The bag feels SOFT AND SUPPLE all throughout. Even in the weird areas it feels fine. Not stiff, not hard, not furry, not rough.

The bottom is dark from overuse but then there's some veiny thing happening. Depending on the light angle it can look like weird dark veins OR weird thin white veins. (?!?) I am perplexed. I googled mold photos on leather and it doesn't look like it. (?!?) I don't trust myself anymore. What is this and most importantly, can I fix it?

Here is the top of the bag. It has some small old oil (food) stains. It doesn't concern me much. The top is fine:



Here is the weirdness at the bottom. Note that the darkened area is (I presume) from overuse. It's the same type of almost-black darkening of the handles and the back of the bag near where it rubs under my arm. It's not the darkness that concerns me. It's the weird veining stuff going on:



Here is a closeup. This is pretty much what it looks like to the naked eye. Dark veiny weirdness:



And here is the same closeup in another light angle. This angle makes it look like the veiny weirdness is white. This photo is quite creepy lol. But it could just be the light angle?



Ok there. Thank you for your time and patience with me and my petty bag problem hehe.

Any help and advice would be very much appreciated!!

 

[ManilaMama]

Here is another photo wherein I encircled the dark cracked weird stuff. In case I needed to make it more clear..

Thanks again!

 

[Evia]

Could be residue from the leather cream. Try rubbing it in and see if it goes away. If it was mould I think you'd have noticed when you cleaned the bag, and it would smell of mould too.

 

[ManilaMama]

Could be residue from the leather cream. Try rubbing it in and see if it goes away. If it was mould I think you'd have noticed when you cleaned the bag, and it would smell of mould too.

No mold smell at all. In fact it smells like new leather (impressive for an old bag).

It's not residue.. it looks like.. cracking?? But WEIRD cracking.. Because if I rub that part one way, I see all the "cracking" disappear.. but when i rub it another way (or even poke it from inside the bag), then the leather starts to look all white and cracking again.

My husband said that the sheep used in my bag has psoriasis or skin asthma LOL! He told me to use Cetaphil cream LMAO.

Either way I am SO HAPPY someone chimed in (THANK YOU!) and even happier that you think it's not mold!

 

[geraldine.rmg]

Your bag seems like it's a distressed leather design, made to look like this, with the crinkles and colour difference. The leather however looks rather dry, perhaps it would be good to get professional help to condition it thoroughly?

 

[pillerih]

I had a small leather pouch with similar white spots. I cleaned it with Woly Perfect Gel and the white disappeared somewhat. I'm guessing it was just dry and neglected, maybe? You might be able to get rid of the dark stains too, or at least lighten them, with a similar product. I was able to significantly lighten colour transfer with Woly Perfect Gel from a similar coloured bag. In my experience it works best with this colour for some reason!

 

[Yoshi1296]

I think it's just normal wear and tear from use. Maybe it could be from the dust bag rubbing up against the leather for so long sitting on the shelf in your closet? The Givenchy dustbag tends to be a bit rough. Not soft on the inside like the Celine Dustbags. And Pepe leather is very soft and delicate. Maybe the color and leather is starting to break in like Balenciaga leather. Balenciaga's leather tends to fade like that and starts to look a bit cracked as it ages.

 

[rc22]

No mold smell at all. In fact it smells like new leather (impressive for an old bag).

It's not residue.. it looks like.. cracking?? But WEIRD cracking.. Because if I rub that part one way, I see all the "cracking" disappear.. but when i rub it another way (or even poke it from inside the bag), then the leather starts to look all white and cracking again.

My husband said that the sheep used in my bag has psoriasis or skin asthma LOL! He told me to use Cetaphil cream LMAO.

Either way I am SO HAPPY someone chimed in (THANK YOU!) and even happier that you think it's not mold!

Looks like cracking to me too (dried)

 

[prepster]

I'm so sorry. What a pain! It looks like very light surface mold and cracking to me. If you have a friend who owns a horse, she can probably id the mold for you. It's nothing unusual on saddles and bridles that often hang in humid, dark tack rooms. We use a product called Leather Therapy and it works wonders. We take the moldy leather outdoors (so mold spores don't float all over the tack room and get on other leather) wipe it with the Leather Therapy Wash, let it dry in the sun and apply Leather Therapy Restorer/Conditioner.