[cloth rustling]
[brush scratching]
I am Charlotte Staerck,
and I'm cofounder and CEO of Handbag Clinic.
Today, I'm going to walk you through
how our artisan Chloe
will restore this Grand Shopper Tote
that has pen ink all over it.
The Chanel Grand Shopper Tote
reached around 2,000 pounds
when it was able to be bought direct from Chanel.
When this restoration's complete,
we would sell a Grand Shopper Tote
for anywhere between 1,700 pounds
and 1,950 pounds.
The first thing that Chloe will do with this item
is remove all of the ink.
The most important part of restoring this bag
will actually be the initial cleaning,
because ink can spread and can create more staining.
We use a special ink remover.
So, you can see Chloe
taking the ink remover with a small cotton bud
and gently rolling this over the initial ink.
This is so that we don't have any spreading,
any further contamination of that ink to the bag.
One of the main reasons for this
is because ink is actually very oily,
and oil and leather really don't mix.
[cotton bud scratching]
We then also use a range of products.
Some are solvent-based,
which will help to dry out any areas
which have absorbed additional oils.
And then we also use products
which have natural oils embedded into them,
which will then nourish areas that have dried,
such as the corners or any areas
where the ink has been drawn out of.
[brush rasping]
We then use our specialist cleaning solution
with the brush and a foam,
which then will remove any excess product.
Caviar skin leather is grained,
so you need the brush to get into all of those grooves
to be able to really make sure it's clean
and make sure it's ready for the next stage of the process.
Caviar leather, it gets its name
from being a pebbled-texture leather,
which means that it has printed into it
this almost bubbled effect.
If anything is trapped there or left in there,
you would run the risk of that later peeling or coming away.
[airbrush hissing]
Because it is ink that has contaminated this,
the cleaning process alone will not remove this stain,
and we must apply other methods.
[airbrush hissing]
In our research and development team,
we realized that ink stains, in particular,
were very stubborn,
so we created a metallic solution
which actually blocks that coming through
to make sure in a year's time
you're not going to start seeing
that ink stain come through.
Chloe takes the specialist solution
and she applies it lightly with an airbrush
throughout every area where you can see the ink.
[airbrush hissing]
Chloe will then create the color match,
which we have discussed with the client in advance.
[palette knife scraping]
This colorant, once created,
will then be airbrushed on this bag.
We always want to be as sparing as possible
to ensure the texture of the leather is maintained.
Because of the iconic CC quilting
and the CC on the front of the item,
which makes this item the iconic Chanel look,
we want to make sure
as little pigment gets onto those stitches as possible.
[airbrush hissing]
And the bag is ready to go.