White cloth isn't the most practical

White cloth purses can be more problomatic than white leather. Leather can be first cleaned and if a small amount of staining remains it can sometimes be covered up with a spray dye. That isn't the case with white cloth. It just has to be clean, there is no option to cover up stains that can't be removed.

The Coach bag shown in these pictures was very difficult to clean due to both it being white and the cloth had a satin finish that can be easily de-lustered if cleaned too aggressively. It took three cleanings to get this bag in the condition that we felt proud to return it to the customer.

If I was to have designed the bag I would have selected a different material for the bottom of the bag.

Extreme Makeover

This Prada purse arrived to us in near fatal condition. The purse had been washed in a washing machine removing much of the dye and creating extreme color contrast in both the fabric and leather. To make things worse, an attempt was made to restore the color using a magic marker. Note the marker coloring in the top right photo between the handles. Clicking on the photograph will enable a clooser view.

Redying the purse to it's original shade was not an option. The dramatic color contrast would still be evident as shading. The customer decided to forego any attempt for recovery and donated the purse to Margaret's for demonstration purposes. Having nothing to loose, the decision was made to dye the purse black in order to have the highest chance of success in covering up the damage. As you can see the results were dramatic. There is a chance that this purse was originally available in black and won't look out of place. The restored purse is currently on display in our La Jolla location for anyone interested in seeing the result. We left some of the lining as the original color to be able to best visualize what has been accomplished.

Mildew on Leather Bags

Never leave a leather bag damp for an extended length of time. The corner of this Yves Saint Laurent handbag was left damp and both mildew and staining resulted. Both the staining and mildew could have been prevented if the owner would have removed the crome bar and let the corner dry.

In restoring this bag not only did it require refinishing to remove the stain but, it was necessary to arrest the mildew. Typical cleaning will not remove all the midew spores and if done improperly the mildew will return. It was necessary to use an anti-fungal treatment to assure the mildew won't return. Now the bag is good as new.