The Bag Spa
Thrifting, conditioning and going over budget
The rabbit hole
I will never understand how American creators can find so many Coach bags online, especially vintage, especially in slightly bad but restorable condition for just a couple of tenners each!
Ok, let me give you some context here. Everything for this month’s obsession started on Instagram, as it often does. It suggested me some reels of yooon_ie giving a “spa day” to a series of vintage Coach bags bought for under 25$ at the thrift store. It was very relaxing to watch. And I thought, I want to try to do this as well!
So I started a Vinted rabbit hole to find any slightly battered vintage Coach under 20/25€. To my disappointment there were none. I then asked ChatGPT some recommendations for more brands with good leather that restore easily, preferably vintage. An even deeper rabbit hole. In the end the ones that yielded the best results on Vinted were Fossil and Dooney and Bourke.
After what felt like countless sleepless nights, and was indeed only one night of rabid searching, I ended up with three bags. A beaten Fossil for 8€. A vintage red Bally mini bag with a detached inside panel and light scratches for 8€. And a yellow Comtesse in already great condition that I wanted purely for myself, negotiated down to 18€. Totaling with shipping I was still well under my 50€ budget, but I had to buy the products as well. Spoiler: I went over.
The toolkit
Based on availability in my country (Italy) and price, I ended up with a couple of horsehair brushes, the Saphir Crème Universelle, and the Fiebling glycerin soap. Most tutorials are US based and the products they recommend are either unavailable here or priced at absolute madness: 45€ for Bick 4, 84€ for Lexol! So I avoided those. I also tried consulting the r/leather subreddit on which cleaner to buy, but it didn’t yield many results.
Some say saddle soap can be too aggressive and to only use it if the leather clearly needs a clean. The glycerin soap is more delicate, which felt like a safer bet. I used it on both the Fossil and the Bally. I set the Comtesse aside. She’s sitting on my bag shelf. I didn’t want to risk ruining her. I’ll probably not wash her but I’ll condition her eventually.
The spa day
At some point I realised I needed to stop buying and start learning. So for what I learned: you need to clean the bag and then condition it. To clean you need to vacuum the inside, brush the outside, use a detergent for the leather, and, if needed, vinegar for mold and disinfectant for the inside. Then you condition it using a balm or a conditioner. Finally you brush the outside with a horsehair brush to evenly spread the conditioner and avoid sticky buildup.
I started with dry brushing and vacuuming the Fossil. I discovered a big strange but luckily not smelly spot on the inside. Then I washed the outside with the glycerin soap. It bled a bit of colour but didn’t fade. I felt cocky enough to try the same on the Bally. It bled red too, which was a small heart attack, but it didn’t fade either. I let both dry for a few days (I didn’t have time to deal with them before, but I don’t think they suffered the pause) then applied the conditioner.
Worth it?
Did I expect a more relaxing process? Yes.
Did I expect to enjoy it more? Yes.
The part I was most looking forward to were the results. The before and after. Restoring something to its potential. But after cleaning I couldn’t see much difference, and after conditioning, still not many visible results. Maybe I expected too much. Maybe I need more bags and more practice.
Should you try it?
Starting this, I vaguely thought I could resell the bags for a profit once done with the spa day. I’ll try to resell the Fossil because it’s absolutely not my style and I bought it solely for the purpose of this hobby. The Comtesse I bought for myself so there was never any doubt on that one. I was on the fence about the Bally, because it’s not something I’d envision on me, but I felt somewhat attached to it after trying to restore its beauty. As soon as I showed her to my mother, though, she really liked it, so I’ll happily gift it to her. The bag will remain in the family.
I’ll probably never make money with this, but I think that’s fine. Making money from a hobby should not be the goal anyway. The moment a hobby starts carrying financial expectations it can begin to feel a lot less like play and a lot more like work.
What I can say is that giving a spa day to a leather bag is something interesting to try. I’d suggest it to anyone who likes bags, appreciates thrifting, and is looking for a goal-oriented hobby that doesn’t take much time from start to finish.
If that sounds like you, try it out and let me know. I’m especially curious to see which bags you’d pick, and of course, the results!
