My Chanel Bag Restored by Vintage Restore

Have I mentioned that I just loooove Chanel bags? Blame it on my penchant for quilted bags (thus it’s no surprise that for the longest time, I’ve been salivating over the Marc Jacobs Stam).

I have this quilted Chanel that has a slight damage. Of course, I wasn’t able to use it for a long time. I’ve been hearing raves about how Vintage Restore did awesome jobs to resuscitate bags that have flat-lined. However, I did not really believe because of what Besa’s (another reputable leather repair store) has done to my Balenciaga Lune.

But after another bag aficionado nudged me to bring my Chanel to Vintage Restore, I decided to give it a go. After all, I can’t use it anyway because its right edge was damaged. The damaged portion wasn’t really that obvious but still I was pretty certain that if I use it and bump into other Chanel lovers, they’d scrutinize it in a pasimple manner (ie, I’d get a taste of my own medicine) and see that my Chanel, however fabulous it may be, is damaged.

Here by the way is a picture of my Chanel. Notice the lower right portion–I had the damage encircled with red:

Here is the damaged portion up close

Anyway, I brought the bag to Vintage Restore in Makati on Oct. 29 this year. But before that, I’ve been in touch with one of the owners, Trish Cuason. We’ve been corresponding through email as to what to do with the bag. Through our correspondences, I can tell that Vintage Restore will do a great job. Trish told me they might cut the edges of the bag to remove the damaged portion. Honestly, this made me cringe (sayang!) but I decided to have faith and let them do what needs to be done. I gave instructions to ship it to me when it’s done, as it’s difficult for me to go back to Makati. The additional P500 for shipping and handling is cheap compared to fuel + toll + driver.

Last week (or was it two weeks ago?) while I was at the hospital to have my son checked up, Trish called me and asked for my permission not to cut the edges of my bag but to replace the leather of the burnt portion instead. I had her assurance that the new leather would blend, but honestly, I had doubts that it would look flawless. I mean, I couldn’t imagine how to do it.

Last Friday, Vintage called me again and asked whether I was willing to declare that my bag cost only P5,000 to avoid the expensive insurance of DHL courier service. If I were to declare the real price of the bag, I’ll have to pay so so much more for the insurance. So I agreed, but I saw the message quite late; they told me that it was beyond the cut-off (of couriers). Thus, they’ll ship it on Monday to minimize the time it will spend with the courier. I really liked the fact that they inform me practically everything they do and not just think, “Bahala na!” and proceed doing things without my permission. And today, my new bag arrived. I saw the package on my desk

I removed the packaging and saw Vintage Restore’s dustbag covering the bag

And when I opened the dustbag, I immediately checked the bag, and here’re what I saw

Is this really the bag?!? :))

The bag was obviously cleaned! It looks new! Let’s take a look up close–let’s look for the damaged portion

Voila! The burnt portion is gone!

As you can see, the burnt portion is gone! The only sign that the leather was changed is the stitch–the original stitch is thicker than the new stitch (I compared to the other stitches). At the back of this bag, another edge used to have an even tinier damage. This too was remedied by Vintage Restore although I could see signs that another leather was put on top. Overall, I’m very happy with Vintage Restore’s service. I’m actually thinking of having my old Dooney and Bourke bags restored (or rather, beautified, as they are not damaged), although I’m not sure whether D&B bags are expensive these days…baka mas mahal pa ang restoration! Although I see at The Purse Forum that D&B bags are in demand too.