My name is Artem Amirov.
I'm the owner of Royal Gloss Restoration Studio
here in Russia,
and I'm the head restoration artist there.
Today, I'm going to walk you through
how we restored this $42,000 Celine crocodile bag.
It was made around eight years ago,
and they were producing it for one year only.
This makes it really rare.
There was a huge amount of problems on it.
There was scuffs and scratches all over the bag.
The lining inside the bag was completely messed up.
The bag was missing the puller for the zipper.
We start with removing the edge paint.
[grinder whirring]
All the edges of the bag have scuffs and scratches.
We use the grinder to sand it down.
We begin with disassembling the bag.
The inner lining had a lot of scratches from active use.
As well, it had some dirt stains.
To clean and fix the inner lining,
we had to pull apart all the bag.
The tools that we used were a seam ripper
and a cobbler knife.
The seam ripper is more preferred
for delicate parts of the bag.
We carefully slide under the stitch
and pull the stitch upward to get it out.
The original lining for Celine crocodile bag
is made of sheepskin.
We also use sheepskin with the same quality,
with the same color, and the same softness.
After we carefully took off all the sheepskin linings
from each side of the bag,
we replaced them with the new ones.
To cut the new lining out, we use a rotary cutter.
The glue that we use is the same that the manufacturer use.
It has a very strong bonding.
In order to make a new zipper for our bag,
we use the new zipper.
We use new leather.
We choose a pattern to match the original scales,
and we paint it the same color as the bag.
In order to clean the handbag,
we use a special leather shampoo and a semisoft brush.
When we talk about cleaning the crocodile skin,
it is difficult because you can damage the patina;
even with a mild cleaner, you can just wipe it out.
One of the biggest concerns is the scales,
which cracked on the handle.
If it's not prevented in time,
later it will be very difficult to repair them.
It's also had greasy stains on it,
so in order to remove the stains
and for our paint to penetrate through the handle
and to have a bond with the surface,
we need to use acetone
to remove the greasy stains.
Applying an edge paint coat is essential part
to keeping all the edges sealed and prevent the bag
from further moisture penetration.
To apply the edge paint, we use a special roller pen.
It grabs a certain amount of edge paint
and allows us to allocate it to the edges.
In order to color match,
I'm testing colors on separate crocodile leather skin.
I'm trying to mimic the fading
that goes from the center to the edges,
from blue to dark blue and then to the black.
It gives the bag a very unique look.
In order to apply the paint,
I'm using airbrush and small spray gun.
Working with them allows me
to accurately distribute paint all over the surface.
We use water-based paints,
which will cover up all the defects.
These kinds of paints have great adhesion properties.
We had two types of sewing machines
to get the same old stitch holes.
We regulate the length between the holes.
One of the sewing machines was primarily used
to sew the thickest part of the leather.
We had to be careful with
assembling the bag back together,
because while assembling all the sides of the bag,
we had to consider the thickness of the leather layers,
so they won't move during the sewing process.
For some parts, we did a hand-sewing
to avoid damaging the crocodile leather.