Project: Pre-Loved Marron Day

Rinaiyoko

Member
Jan 8, 2009
44
0
Sooo, I got my first Balenciaga bag ever last thursday and it was the first time that I used Vestiaire Collective. I got her through VC from a nice french woman for 310€. The whole buying process went very well, I contacted the seller before for more photos so we already had a connection. She informed me as soon as she sent the bag off to VC to Paris. VC kept me updated through small notes on their website. I was very impressed by the fast shipping from Paris to Germany. Only 1! day and it arrived!

Now onto the bag. I knew there would be a few things to fix. On the sellers photos were a few white spots on the leather, a bit discolouring was visible and you could see that the tassels were split. Before purchasing her I read a lot about dying and moisturizing etc. so I was prepared ;) When I unpacked her I was very happy about the colour, size and style BUT: The leather was very dry and papery... it felt very thin and rough at the bottom. The typical Balenciaga finish was only left on a few parts of the bag. I got a little bit worried about the quality of Balenciaga bags at this point. Could I ever fix the rough, almost suede like bottom?

Here are a few before photos:
Before_1_zpse2471fcb.jpg

Colour rubb-off and discolouring

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A part with the typical leather look

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Used edges

Before_4_zps9d010704.jpg

Rough and dry bottom/corner of the bag

Before_5_zps85c41bcd.jpg

Broken edges on the middle of both handles

Before_6_zps53f97d1b.jpg
Split Tassels with extremely thin parts and some small scratches. One split half was even ripped in two...the second part is sadly missing so I've got 3/4th of a whole tassel if glued together...
 
So here's what I did:
I used a leather cleaner which my father gave me (he is very familiar with caring for leather clothes and motorcycle leather ) and removed the white spots. This was easy, they went off after a little bit of rubbing. A bit colour came off, too but nothing to worry about.
The next step was a thin coat of taupe coloured shoe cream. It added a first touch of moisture and made the discolouring disappear a bit. After a few hours I added a thin coat of Beeswax Leather Oil by B&W on the whole bag, except for the handles. After 1hour I applied a second thin coat and let it dry again. At this point the discolouring began to get a bit less visible.
For the next step I took the Fiebings Oil Based Leather Dye in Chocolate, dripped a few drops into the lid and added some water to get a light wash of colour. With a small paint brush I coated the really used and light areas like here:
During_1_zps73addcfd.jpg

Compared to the first picture it's a lot better.
I let the parts dry and if needed I added another coat.

During_2_zps013866b7.jpg

Here you can see that the leather is not as dry as when I got her but it's still very light in colour, thin and dryer than the rest of the bag.

* I rubbed the whole bag with a soft cloth and added a coat of another leather conditioner, especially on the bottom. After an hour I rubbed her again, I tried to get the typical Balenciaga shine back but it didn't change that much.

During_3_zpsca131a86.jpg



More will follow tomorrow :biggrin:

 
These are the products I used if anyone is interested:
Products_zpsaf43ddfa.jpg



[FONT=&quot] The big rescue for me was the effax Leather Balm. I added a coat of this and the leather got much better. I added a second coat the next day and now it's buttery soft and a lot shinier than before.[/FONT]
During_6_zpse78b8763.jpg


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During_zps0b69f58b.jpg

[FONT=&quot]On a few spots on the bottom I added a tiny bit more since it was really dry. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot](The leather darkened a lot during the process but I knew this would happen. Like on my other leather pieces the dark color usually fades within 2-6 Days.)[/FONT]

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[FONT=&quot]After this I took leather glue and glued the tassels back together. Even the one where 1/4th was missing. I attached it to the mirror once I was done so it won't be used that much.
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During_4_zps750924cd.jpg
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