How to Look After your Designer Handbag

10 Tips for Bag Care

Follow, or at least consider these tips when you use your handbag. Your priority is to keep your bag looking good and stain free, yet to enjoy using it.

1. Look after your bag and store it in its dust bag cover or use a natural fiber soft pillowslip.
2. Handle your bag, especially lighter bags with clean hands.
3. Avoid handling the designer bag after applying beauty products, face foundation or hand creams.
4. If the weather is really bad and raining consider using a less special handbag.
5. Be careful when you visit a hairdressers with your bag, as hair products can easily splash onto handbags left on the floor at your feet. Clippings of chemically treated hair can land on the bag and leave marks.
6. When carrying a light colored bag consider using pencils rather than Biros-Biros can be difficult to remove. Don't use your bag as a rest to place paper and write notes. Pointed pens can leave impression tool marks through paper rested on firm leathers.
7. If your bag has a chain handle, store the chain inside the bag to avoid scratching the outside leather when the bag is resting.
8. For storage, use bubble wrap to stuff your bags as it does not attract moths in the same way as tissue paper does.
9. If you are doing a big weekly shop then unless you are planning to impress a prospective Mr. or Mrs. right, avoid taking your special bag to the supermarket! Trolleys can scratch your bag and mark it permanently , as can spillage from foodstuffs such as yoghurts, cream, dips, squashy fruit, milk and even leaking cleaning products.
10. For long term storage, undo strap buckles so that impression are not created. Then if you wish to wear the strap across the body messenger style and need maximum strap lenght or need to shorten it to wera underarm style at a later date, this unbuckling of the straps before storage will stop areas becoming impressed and unattractive.

Store your bags in dust bags or pillow cases.

Don't use grocery bags to store yoru best bags. When your precious bag is not on display, protect it with a dust bag or pillow case. There is no reason why you cannot just drop your handbag in to an old pillow case or your dust bag even when youa re at home and the bags contains yoru worldly goods. This way, a bag is less likely to get scuffed or scratched by pets and family or have odd spots of coffee dripped on it as others pass by.

If you have to store yoru bag in yoru desk or filing cabinet at work, check the drawers first for rough splinters or sharp edges that could damage and scratch your bag. Consider keeping a spare pillow case in teh drawer to cover your bag.

Follow the product cleaning instructions to the letter.

I must warn you never to inhale any spray products and use a well ventilated area and wear a mask.

Other cleaning treatments people have recommended include using baby wipes (they leave a great deal of lint behind) although they do work ok on coated canvas and hairspray on cotton buds to remove stubborn marks.

Saliva is also a suggested method by museums to clean leather, particularly carved leather in panels in ancient homes. Such carved leather panels may be dirty with smoke, dirt, and age. So this "spit" technique should also work on certain TREATED leather bags. Louis Vuitton is not one of these bags because of the untreated leather!!! Any of these will stain the bag further.

The craziest thing to clean Louis Vuitton with that works well. BRASSO. I know I know, harsh chemical used to clean hardware on untreated leather? You must be crazy. Well I wouldn't recommend it to be used on new bags, but on bags that have a patina that is setting in it works well to remove ink marks and dirt stains. Yes I said ink marks. Finally something to remove them with. Take a small amount of Brasso and work it into a paper towel, then lightly rub the paper towell over the ink stain and it should easily lift without staining the bag.

If your not sure, test the ideas on an old bag or on a small spot on the bottom of the bags leather.

PS Brasso is also the best thing for cleaning hardware.

Bags in Transit

If you need to send your bag anywhere do make sure it is well packed and the box has padding around the bag. Put dangling metal logos or charms inside the bag or cover them with bubble wrap. Chain handles should be padded and if possible also placed into the body of the inner bag to prevent scratching the bag outer material.

Bag Insurance

You may wish to consider bag insurance. Most household policies only cover goods to a small specific amount. Therefore, it is a good idea to check with your insurer to make sure that they handbag and its contents are covered by your policy. This may mean adding a small extra premium to cover bag insurance. Specialist item extra insurance may be costly. Whether or not you take up insurance is your business, but be aware of the monetary factors.

Bag Safety

Look after your bag at all times. Fore safety on a day to day basis, always choose a bag with a full zip closure and inner zip pockets so random thieves cannot rifle through it in a moment. Open bags are easier to lose items from as well as attracting pickpockets. How often have you seen someone with their bag gaping open? If you noticed it then so will and unscrupulous chance thief. Probably often enough to know that care is not just about keeping your bag clean, but also preventing others from stealing it.

Thanks for reading,

Vintage Prime LLC