Re-Dyeing Givenchy Pandora

One of the wish list items in my very long and never ending wish list is a Givenchy Pandora in Pepe Leather. All I knew is that I wanted a darker colour and if a black one came along at the right price, I would have taken the black, even though I have a severe aversion to buying black bags.

One night as I was stalking eBay, I found a really used, suntanned and faded Givenchy Pandora in what used to be an Aqua blue (not sure of the proper designer colour name). She looks like she has been loved to bits and I'm guessing the previous owner didn't like the way it had started to fade to yellows and greens in some part of the bag. I closely looked at every single picture and studded every miniscule inch of the bag. There was the usual wear on the corners, but nothing too horrible. The insides were immaculately clean. The only issue was there was a tiny tear on the leather on the crossbody strap where it attached to the large lobster claw. At this point, I couldn't really tell how severe it is, if it was torn on both sides of the leather or not. 

My mind started ticking and thinking about what I could do to try and fix it and the only thing I could think of was Edge Kote. Edge Kote is basically the edge seal of any leather goods. I know them to be flexible and if I did a thick enough layer, I feel like I could prolong the tear from getting bigger.

One of the biggest push to get this bag was the price. At only $380 AUD, for the condition that it is, bar the small tear and discolouration, it's amazing, especially after envisioning what it would look like at the end.

I finally received the bag and it was beyond my expectations, the tear was only on one side of the leather, the inner part was still very intact so there would be no issue in just fixing the top part with the Edge Kote. The leather still smelt amazing, though sad looking from all the faded parts.

I'll stop talking/typing now and show you pictures of what I did. I couldn't really closely document each step as it was late at night and my mind was just racing to get it all done.

Note that I do not recommend to just do this on any bag. If you want to do something similar, do patch tests and do it at your own discretion. I took a risk and it seems to have paid off. The Pepe Leather on this Pandora is very forgiving, in a sense that it's very uneven in texture so it didn't matter how even each coat of dye was.

 Above are photos of the original colour of the bag. These were taken at night in artificial lighting, but you can how faded it is at the front where the logo is. The back of the bag has a lot of discolouration on the side corners where it's turned green and yellowish. A lot of blue based bags like purples, magentas and all shades of blue bags that I've seen tend to fade with a green and yellow tinge.

These are the products I've used.

The leather Edge Paint is what I used to fix the small tear. The colour Green was on sale and I knew I would be painting over it so there was no need to match the colour.

 Fixing the leather tear with the Edge Paint was quite easy, as long as you have a thin tool, in this case I used the wooden end of a small thin brush and just dabbed the edge paint and blowing at it to give it the gluey sticky consitency. I let this dry for an hour.

I cleaned the whole bag with the HG Deep Cleaner. I've used this on some of my bags but never to the depth of what I had to do with this bag. This cleaner seems to really open up the pores of any leather I've used it on and takes away some of the sheen. I couldn't get a hold of a Leather Preparer/Stripper, which is what's recommended by everyone before dyeing any leather. I hoped this Deep Cleaner would do the trick and it has. I waited for it to dry before applying my first coat of dye.

I chose the colour Oxblood as I hoped to get a burgundy with purply tinges on the bag. As the original colour of the bag was blue, I knew that adding on a blue based red paint would give me that effect. I also had the colour Purple on hand incase I needed to mix it, but after patch testing, the Purple left a lot rosy gold coating on top, which didn't look very nice. One thing I also had to consider was if the dye would take and complete absorb on the stitches and the zippers. In this case, it didn't completely go Oxblood, but more purple, which is what I had expected and it doesn't look completely bad.

The best thing about this dye, for me, was that it's really penetrating. A small amount goes a long way. As soon as I dab it, it almost bleeds out, which is good as you know it has saturated the leather.

After 2 coats of dye, I let it dry for an hour, even though it feels dry to the touch almost immediately. I buffed the whole bag with just a white cloth before applying 2 coats of Acrylic Resolene. You need to use a damp cloth to apply the Acrylic Resolene. Just dab a bit of the Resolene on the cloth and apply to the bag in a sweeping motion. I read up on Resolene and people have said that it gets tacky and leaves a sticky residue if not applied properly, so use sparingly at first and make sure your applicator is damp, not dripping wet.

I let the Resolene dry for half an hour before buffing the whole bag with a dry white cloth and as you can see in the last picture, it makes a lot of difference. There's very little colour rubbing off. Resolene is suppose to act as a sealant for the dye aswell as waterproofing it.

I am overall ecstatic with the outcome. Very fortunate that the leather was so forgiving and took the colour nicely.

 

 Thank you for stopping by! If you have any questions please leave a message below!

xxx

Leather Care

I've always been interested in bags and leather goods in general. The heady aroma, the feel and look of leather gets me into a twist and it seems like I've blacked out only to come to with a shopping bag in hand and said leather good inside that bag. 

However, this dizzying effect needs to be maintained. Leather is natural and needs to be treated like how you would your own skin. If your skin started to look dull and dry, you would moisturize it. As I do with my own skin, prevention is always better than cure. So rather than waiting for it to look dull, faded and dry, you would try to maintain it, sort of like a pre-emptive strike before the worse happens.

I'm not saying the above products are the best for your bags and leather goods, these are just the ones that have worked for me. I only mainly use these products on my bags and my Chanel Espadrilles in Lambskin. I try to use cleaning/care products on my bags that do not alter the feel and look of the leather.

*** As with everything else, please do an overnight or a 48hr spot test in an inconspicuous spot before applying it to the actual bag. Most bags will come with a small leather swatch, I use those to test my cleaning/care products on first ***

This is the Lovin' My Bags products I mainly use. The Lamb Caress, For Handles Only and Miracle Shield. You can purchase them here. There are many other products that the brand offers to care for and keep your leather goods in tip top shape. If you have any queries and unsure about what to use on your item, you can ask Barbara and her team questions, they're very helpful.

I got these products when I had accidentally grabbed one part of the handle on my Givenchy Nightingale with my damp and moisturized hand. Unfortunately, that part of the handle could not be completely saved. Please see pictures below. I refrained from using the bag until I was able to get my LMB products. 

At this point I was still sceptical about it actually working. I tried the Lamb Caress on the handles and the whole bag for an overall cleaning of any marks and stains. In my opinion the Lamb Caress, didn't do as much, it only got the superficial stains out, but nothing more. I then used For Handles Only on the handles and felt that it protected it from future markings. I used the bags a handful more times and as you can see from the picture the clean handles stayed that way and the ruined one didn't get any worse and just stayed the same. 

I applied Miracle Shield on the whole bag to prevent it from any staining as it claims to be water & stain repellent.

This HG Deep Cleaner for Leather was recommended to me by someone from the Purseforum who also had a cream coloured Givenchy Nightingale in Lambskin. She said this really cleaned her bag without damaging and altering the leather.

The 3 pictures of the Nightingale below shows where I used the HG cleaner. First pic, on the right hand side of the handle is a faint line going down. That is where the bag folds when you're using it. A woman who was sitting next to me on the train had a black fabric bag and she sat it right next to my bag, my bag was on my lap, but she decided to encroach my space and I didn't realize it was rubbing on my bag the whole time. The mark was much darker than this, unfortunately the black dye had penetrated deep into the pores and I could only manage to get some of it off.

The 2nd & 3rd picture is the bottom corner of the bag that rubbed on my pants when I walked. It was also much darker than this and I felt the HG cleaner got rid of most of the marks.

In the end, this Nightingale was a nightmare to wear and keep as much as I loved it. I didn't want a minor aneurysm every time I carried her, so I sold her on. Hoping one day to get a Nightingale again, in a different leather and colour.

HG Deep Cleaner was purchased on eBay. I could not locate it anywhere in Australia. I believe this is a European brand.

Last and definitely not the least is Leather Honey. This is my all time favourite. It's not so much a cleaner, but more restorative care. My love for Balenciaga bags is due to it's vibrant colours and the soft puddly leathers. However, you can't always snag the colours you want at any time as different seasons will produce different styles and colours, so the next best thing is pre-loved Balenciagas. 

Due to the nature of how the leather is treated and coloured, the bag does need some up-keep from time to time. When I finally snagged myself a 2010 Sorbet Flat Clutch, I was over the moon! However I noticed that colour was different on the outside compared to the leather tag inside the bag. For fear of ruining the leather, feel and colour of the bag, I did not want to use just any products you can buy at your closest cobbler. I did my research and stumbled upon this thread on the Purseforum.

Please have a read through the thread, it's very informative and insightful and a lot of people have been very happy with the results.

Below are photos of the Flat Clutch about 1hr after application. The darker side is the treated side & you can see how faded and dry the other side is. You need to let the first application dry a few hours or even overnight and apply another if you wish. The end result, though not as dark and moisturized as per initial application, but you can definitely see a massive difference in the leather. I also noticed how it took away some of the faint fingernail/scuff marks, so I was very happy with that.

It tells you to use a brush or a cloth to apply it, but I did it with my hands and felt that was more effective for me as I could really get into the nooks and crannies of the leather. I however did not use LH on the handles of my Balenciaga bags as I thought it would get sticky, however I just read towards the end of the Purseforum thread, that a member used it on the handles to restore the colour and felt it didn't leave a sticky residue, she also buffed it with the LMB For Handles Only afterwards and was happy with the results.

I tested LH on my Alexander Wang Rocco in Latte, even though the Rocco is lambskin, I think it's a differently treated lambskin to the Balenciaga leather. The LH didn't dry properly even after a week and left a faint mark on the Rocco.

Leather Honey was purchased on eBay. I could not find anywhere in Australia, or even in New York, that sold them. The bottle still looks very full even though I've used it on about 5 items, with 2 coats each. So a little goes a very long way.

Like I initially stated, these are my opinions and how these products have worked for me. I cannot guarantee if they will work for your kind of leather goods. Your best bet is to do your research, Google and forums are great for reviews.

With all my bags, I make sure I store them stuffed, so they stay in shape, inside their dustbags. For bags with darker interior, I find newspaper is great to stuff with. Newspaper will also keep away any musty smell that leather may get over time if not used regularly. I don't suggest stuffing bags with anything other than paper based materials. Paper will absorb any moisture that may gather. Storing them in their original dustbag will also help in keeping hardware from oxidizing and from dust gathering on the bag. Though oxidization in hardwares/metals can't be avoided in some metals, storing the item properly can prolong it from happening. If you don't have dustbags, pillow cases can also do the trick.

I rotate my bags a lot. After each use before putting it away, I'll quickly look over it to see if I need to clean or wipe any areas before storing it.

I hope this is somewhat helpful at least. I'm a little OCD in trying to keep my items in good condition, so my sickness can be your learning tool.

Toodles!