Dooney and Bourke DIY Purse Restoration

When I was a poor college student (working as a Big Lot’s cashier), I would see customers carrying colorful Dooney & Bourke bags either in monogram or heart prints.  Oh, how I coveted one of those rainbow purses, they were named the “It Bag” for good reason.  Carrying a Dooney & Bourke created an immediate class distinction between the girls that could afford the brand and those like me who could only admire them from afar - with a part-time, minimum wage salary those designer purses were always out of my reach.  While my cashiering gig couldn’t afford me a prized designer bag, it did begin my education as a consumer.  The tragedy of being born poor with expensive taste meant that I needed to get creative.  My first handbag purchases were real leather vintage beauties without brand tags.  I carried those babies for years and when it was time to retire them I held a sad letting go ceremony.  Those bags taught me that what I loved more than a brand name was quality.  Famous designer Coco Chanel said, “The best things in life are free.  The second best things are very, very expensive.”  Don’t let the snobbish literality of her comment distract you from the true meaning.  Things that are usually expensive (and worth the expense) usually follow the principle of quality.  In terms of purses the materials used to produce the handbag as does the craftsmanship dictate the quality and price of the end product.

This is the before picture after I had washed it and dried it.  

I forgot to take a picture of the very initial sad state.

A few months ago I came across a Dooney & Bourke purse at my local Goodwill, it had seen better days, but it brought back memories of that one bag that got away.  After full examination: the leather was full of stains, the lining dirty, the edging fraying and the shape crushed (from bad storage) and thinking that I had probably blown seven dollars I decided to try to revamp it anyway.  I did some research and discovered that the purse I had in my possession is an All Weather Leather Satchel, it probably dates to the eighties and it was made back when things were made in the USA!  Everything about this information excited me, I felt like a girl whose grandma had passed on a family heirloom.  All this information came from the tag inside my purse and the serial number on the back of it.  Usually designer bags have a way of dating their bags, stamping the style in addition to sharing where it was made because they are proud of the craftsmanship.  My research also suggested the dunking method as a way to restore the purse.  Thus the following will be a description of how I resuscitated her back to a second chance of life.  

 The dunking method consists of dunking the bag into a tub of soapy water and letting it sit for thirty minutes on each side, then scrubbing the grime away.  Once washed it can air dry with something inside to help reshape the bag. 

I used Angelus products.  Cream leather paint, light brown dye and a satin finish.  

I used painters tape to make sure I did a neat job on the trim.

 The dye is a little tricky and messy.  You have to be quick with the brush to spread it evenly without leaving trails of the brush.

Little details like polishing the hardware take years away. The right side has been polished so that you can see the difference.

I have worked on this bag off and on for a month, doing the steps slowly in my free time.  We have grown quite close through this period of reconstruction.  In the mid-eighties and early nineties this baby sold for two-hundred-ninety dollars, the price even today sounds high; but look at the testimony of life.  This purse is almost as old as I am!  On Facebook a friend expressed her frustration with people spending over two-hundred dollars on a Michael Kors purse instead of buying something less expensive and donating the rest to charity.  While her remark sounds quite reasonable, I disagree with it completely.  Cheap fashion hurts people and the planet in the making, paying a little more for an item means more use and less discards.  If you are clever like me, you will have someone else pay the high fee and wait patiently for it to reach your local thrift store.  In another post I will go over the many hands that an item goes through before it reaches the store to continue my argument that spending more on quality verses less on quantity is the best type of consumer to strive to be.          

New Rehabilitated Purse!