My name's Freya Bass, and I own Bagsamoré,
a handbag-restoration company in Sydney, Australia.
Today, I'm going to walk you through
how I restore a $4,000 Chanel vanity case.
Typical of a bag of this age,
the lining is disintegrating, as it is a coated fabric.
We also have wear and tear to the outer corners.
This bag was purchased 10 years ago for $1,500.
It is today worth between $3,000 and $5,000,
so in its restored state,
it will be worth more towards $5,000.
To begin the process,
I'm going to remove the strap from the bag.
So I'm going to do this using some small pliers
to gently remove the chain from the link.
The strap is very worn.
So there is color wear, dirt, buildup,
and the metalwork is tarnished.
I'm then going to take a quick unpick
and undo the stitches at the end of the chain.
I now need to unthread the leather through the chain
so that it's completely separated from the metalwork.
Now I've fully removed the leather from the chain,
I'm going to clean the strap.
So the leather strap will just be cleaned
initially with foam cleaner.
I'm doing this with a horsehair hide brush,
which is nice and gentle
to get into the grain of the leather.
And then I'm going to continue this process
throughout the exterior of the bag.
So I'm just applying foam cleaner to the bag's surface,
doing one panel at a time.
I'm gently massaging the foam into the grain of the leather.
It's always important to clean the bag
before applying pigment.
This will mean that the pigment
will bond to the leather better.
If there's anything left on the surface of the bag,
such as silicones from protector sprays
or day-to-day dirt buildup,
this could hinder the bonding process.
Now I'm going to clean the interior of the bag.
I just need to clean as much of the debris away as possible.
So I'm using a much more gentle cleaner here,
which is like a luxury leather cleaner.
So it's a water-based cleaner,
and I'm basically just going to gently wipe
inside the lining.
This has to be done really gently,
as if any pressure is put on
or if a product that was incorrect was used,
it will then start to remove even more of the lining.
We need to preserve
as much of the original lining as possible
to make the job easier in the restoring stage.
Now we've fully cleaned the bag inside and out,
I'm going to move over to the repair process.
The interior of the bag is disintegrating.
This is quite common with this age bag,
as it was made from a coated fabric.
Over time and due to humidity,
the surface of the lining
will start to crumble and come away.
We need to restore the lining
as close to the original as possible,
so we're going to rebuild the surface
using fillers and pigments.
So here I'm going to use a flexible filler.
This filler moves with the surface of the leather or fabric.
So I'm just going to apply this
using a very soft and small paintbrush
so I can get a nice even surface
across the whole interior lining.
The idea is to restore the original
and avoid having to replace something like this.
This means we retain the original Chanel logo.
I'm going to do this very slowly to make sure
that I get a good even coverage all the way around.
I'm going to start using the filler along the top rim
and then work my way down
into the main crevices of the lining.
Once applied, this filler needs 24 hours to cure.
Now I've left the filler for 24 hours,
I'm sanding down the surface.
This is to remove any sort of bits of grain
or lumps or bumps and try and get a smooth finish.
I'm just going to start sanding
around the top really gently.
I'm using a very fine sandpaper
so it doesn't grab or wear down
the surface of the original lining.
And I'm then going to wipe over with some alcohol.
This will remove any of the surface dust
that has been created from the sandpaper,
and then it will also slightly soften the filler
to help it smooth
and blend into the original surface of the lining.
Before airbrushing, I'm just going to
remove the CC lock hardware.
This makes it much easier
to get an even coat around the lock.
I'm just going to unscrew this
with a small flat-head screwdriver.
Once I've removed that,
I'm going to tape up the remaining hardware on the bag.
So now I'm just going to move on
to mixing a color for the bag.
I custom-mix every color by eye,
so I tend to use about three or four paints
to mix each color.
So here I'm using caramel, gold yellow, and citrine.
I mix these together,
and I'm just going to test the color
on a small area on the bag to make sure it matches.
This can take few attempts sometimes
just to make sure that the color is absolutely spot on.
Now I've got my color, and I'm good to go.
I'm just going to pop it into an airbrush.
I use the airbrush, as it allows me
to create lots of fine coats of pigment
rather than painting it on, which would go on too thick.
It's really important not to too-heavy-coat a bag
with paints, pigments, and fillers.
Less is always more.
So we still want to preserve the original
look and feel of the bag.
I'm just going to work my way
round each section of the bag,
concentrating on the areas that have more wear.
Now I've managed to get a nice coat of pigment
over all of the bag,
I'm then going to use a finish.
A finish is a clear-coat sealant
which goes on top of the pigment
to protect it from wear and tear.
Here I've mixed about two-thirds high gloss
to a third matte to get a nice satin sheen,
which reflects the original leather.
I'm just going to airbrush this finish over the whole bag
and then leave it to dry.
Now moving on to the leather in the strap,
I'm actually going to paint this on with a paintbrush
so as not to have too much wasted paint.
So I'm just going to run
all the way along the strap with one coat,
leave it to dry, and then repeat the process.
I'm then going to finish this off,
again, with airbrushing the finish
for a nice even layer across the whole strap.
Now I'm going to move on to the lining.
I'm going to take my paintbrush and paint in
over all of the areas where the surface had chipped away.
This may take a few coats,
as it was showing white underneath,
but I need to rebuild the color back up
to match the surface lining.
Once I've done that, I'm going to apply a finish.
Due to the severity of the condition of this lining,
there will still remain a few imperfections,
but what we've done is we sealed and recoated the surface,
so this will prevent any further damage from happening
and give this handbag a new lease on life.
Now that I've completed all of the airbrushing,
I am now going to polish the hardware.
Here I'm going to use a fine-grade metal polish
to just gently polish the surface of the metal.
This'll remove any of the tarnishing.
As I'm doing so, you can see the dark color
of the tarnished metalwork coming off onto the cotton bud.
I'm going to polish all of the links on this strap
to bring them up to a nice shiny gold.
Now all the color work is done,
I'm going to reattach the strap.
I'm going to, firstly,
re-thread the leather through the strap.
It's really important that you line the leather up properly
so that you get the same amount each end.
I am now using the pliers
to reattach the chain to the bag.
Now I need to stitch the leather back together
through the original holes.
I'm taking some matching-color thread
and using a very fine needle
so I can get through the original holes.
It's really important to go through the original holes,
as if you make a new hole in leather,
there's no way of reversing that
without then going through another repair process.
I'm just going to secure with a couple of stitches
and then tie it in on itself to keep it neat.
And now I just need to thread the end
back through the leather
and then secure it with a little bit of glue,
just like it was originally done.
And now I'm going to apply a leather protector
to the surface of the leather.
This will protect the bag from dye transfer from jeans,
UV damage, and liquid and oil staining.
It's really important to protect your leather bags
for future wear and tear.
I'm really happy how the restoration of this bag turned out.
The interior is now ready to be worn,
and the lining is all fixed up.
The outside is no longer showing any signs of wear and tear,
and the gold hardware is looking nice and shiny.
I think my customer is going to be
really pleased with the outcome.