Daughter Doodled on Chanel GST:

Our customer didn’t think twice about leaving her GST alone with her daughter…

Casualty: Chanel GST

Incident: Attack by Sharpie Pen

Chanel GST’s are crafted from Caviar Calfskin Leather. Due to leather being a super absorbent material and furthermore, Caviar leather hosting tiny grains; the ink is further engrained into the bag!

Upon receiving the bag, we immediately treated the ink with our specialist stain remover; utilising a fine bud to minimise the ink spreading further into the leather and contaminating the original colour of the bag.

This process requires a steady hand and an abundance of patience as it’s a time-consuming job.

As you can see, the colour is already muted from the first coat of the stain remover…

Next, we utilise a range of our in-house cleaning products to not only hygienically clean the bag but more importantly, draw out any oils that will have contaminated the leather from the ink.

Wiping the products against the natural grain of the bag, we are able to further reduce the severity of the stain.

Due to sharpie being a permanent and prominent ink, it permanently dyes the fibres which means that the colour is muted after our various attempts of cleaning, but not entirely removed.

To ensure that every remnant of the ink is removed, we use a bristle brush to work the cleaning foam deep into the grains and brush in a clockwise direction to finalise the cleaning process.

As experts in the field of restorations, we know that over time stains can migrate back through to the surface of the bag, which is why our development team have worked to curate a specialist metallic pigment that prevents this.

We mist the leather with fine layers of our metallic solution, being mindful to preserve the texture of the bag whilst achieving an even coverage. Utilising the airbrush tool, we can ensure that we only use a minimal amount of the solution to maintain the prestige of the original Caviar Leather.

It’s important to us that we colour match the original bag perfectly, so we blend an array of colours until we achieve the perfect tone of white. With this Chanel GST being this mum’s most loved bag and everyday choice, it experienced discolouration from sun exposure, every day contact with surfaces and dirt…

More often than not, we can source the original colour of the bag by looking at the leather found on the inside, as it typically isn’t contaminated or stained. However, as with most females, this mother threw everything from makeup to kids toys in and thus, the internal leather also experienced discolouration.

This is where our unique consultations shine as we were able to work closely with this mother to tailor her restoration and produce a colour that not only matched the original shade but also suited her bespoke tastes.

We apply fine layers of the bespoke white colourant to the GST, misting the paint (as opposed to hand painting) to ensure only the lightest amount goes on, to once again maintain the original texture of the luxurious Caviar leather.

As a result of the bag being so heavily discoloured (from general wear, not the ink), we recoloured the entire bag off camera to ensure a seamless finish. Furthermore, our artisans applied a sealant which matches the original semi-gloss finish.

Chanel GST’s were discontinued in 2014 so it was pivotal to this mother that we restored this bag to its former splendour, as it truly is irreplaceable! We pride ourselves on preserving the past whilst mindfully reinventing the future, our artisans have breathed a new lease of life into this GST and it will live a vivacious life for more decades to come!

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