Testimonials: Stories of the Worst Things That Have Ever Happened to Your Bag

I had purchased a brand new Louis Vuitton monogram handbag with a huge vachetta shoulder strap. I went to have lunch with a client at an Italian restaurant and placed the bag in the empty chair next to me. We had finished eating the appetizers and the waiter was removing the dish full of olive oil from the table and or course he dropped the oil all over the brand new vachetta strap! Imagine the horror! I jumped up an grabbed the bag and started to wipe it off with the napkin. The damage had been done as there was NO way to remove the oil. The restaurant manager came over to apologize and asked what they could do to fix this and I said I would take the bag to Louis Vuitton and let him know and he gave me his business card. At Louis Vuitton they said the strap could be replace and they would send the bag to París to fix it. The bill was $200 and the restaurant paid for the repair. It all worked out but imagine the horror! ????????????

Once upon a time, I had a vintage 40-year old vache naturelle HAC Birkin that I personally owned in size 32 cm with gold hardware and contrasting ivory stitching. A gorgeous piece indeed, but imperfect with marks, dryness, scratches, etc. So, I decided to use saddle leather soap to clean it, followed by a saddle leather conditioner to recondition it. At first, it looked nice, but then I thought just one more coat of conditioner! One more coat would make it even better. Still looked great, but not every stain was gone, and the dryness just was too intense.

It was an old bag, showed all the signs of dried out leather, but probably had more years to it had I simply left it alone after my first attempt to clean and recondition. After maybe 4 -5 more coats, the bag was still okay. There were still stains that never came out and now seemed more pronounced. The oils from the conditioner eventually seemed to eat away at the bag. The leather began to fall apart. I had over-conditioned my gorgeous vache naturelle. The age of the bag and lack of care for so many years had finally caught up with it. No additional cots of conditioner could ever rescue it. What may have been a small crack, became a bigger crack. A small hole became a bigger and highly noticeable hole. In essence, I had just ruined a vintage Hermes piece, which let me tell you, makes you feel miserable. The talent, effort, and expertise that goes into making each bag; you now ruined all of those efforts. I felt horrible.

But, the story is not over. While the bag has its level of tears and cracks, holes, and dried leather galore…my daughter is an amazing artist. The bag held its overall shape despite the cracks, holes, dryness, and stains. She plans to paint over the leather and I would love to post photos of her artful inspiration when completed.

Even though this was not my only Hermes haut a courroies or Birkin bag, I still felt terrible nonetheless. Here is the lesson I have learned…never try to clean it yourself, a wipe or two with a dry cloth would be okay, but any real cleaning or refurbishment must be done at the boutique by those who truly know what they are doing. I am way too of an amateur to get this right. I had never done anything like this before and will never make this mistake again. Thank you for reading! Stay safe!

My 5-months old kelly 28 was ruined during my trip to Switzerland last year. On the day my family and I visited Grindelwald First Mountain, we decided to try their mountain cart (because it is included in the entrance ticket). We thought it is a very safe activity as we saw a lots of kids queuing. Besides, when it’s finally our turn, the staffs didn’t warn us for any unforeseen danger on the road. There was also little instruction given to us on how we should operate the mountain cart, and no one mentioned there is a need to beware of our belonging during the ride too. So with no awareness of any safety issue during the ride, we are set to go…

5 mins later, the slope of the track become so steep that the speed of the mountain cart go crazily fast, and there is a sharp turn following that slope and that was the moment my bag got throw out of the mountain cart! It hit so hard onto a big rock and then rolled a few turns before falling on the sandy path! To be honest with you, I don’t even have time to think of how rubies the bag can be because my mountain cart was almost at the cliff end at that moment (there are no fence along the track so if the mountain cart go one inches forward I guess I won’t be typing any story now). Anyways, I’m glad I’m still able to get my bag but then it is covered with scratches on both the front panel and back panel (you can see my IG story highlight for more details and also on how it looks after the accident).

After the trip, I brought the bag back to the store to see if they can do anything to help. I leave the bag with hermes for 2 months and surprisingly it came back nice and shiny — even the corners were back to like it is brand new! I was happy with what Hermes did but that Grindelwald First Top of Adventure Mountain Cart is definitely a NO for any children/teenagers! I saw from TripAdvisor after my incident that there was an accident where people was thrown out of the mountain cart and eventually need to rush to hospital! I’m glad it was only the bag that got thrown out of the mountain cart instead of myself!

@styledbyme_j
For videos of before and after: https://www.instagram.com/p/B5aPsmvnglk/?igshid=1jx690f7h7bk6

Ostrich in Black Bean Sauce

Brought along my Birdie Birkin to dimsum with the family one Sunday afternoon as that’s our customary brunch destination. Little did I know that Miss Gris Agate would also partake in this particular weekend outing. Normally, my bag in tow gets the seat next to me, if space is permitted. She was sitting there perfectly until I picked her up and noticed a greasy spot on the bottom, closest to the front panel (see pic). I freaked out as I knew it wasn’t there before, for I had just picked up this special order 2 months prior. I quickly phoned my SA, even though it was a Sunday, and panicked asking for any suggestions… he advised me to use a Q-tip and dab baby powder directly on the spot, pat excess with a dry cloth, then blow dry.. and repeat. After speaking with him, I told the fam to Uber home when they were done cause I was leaving with the car to resuce my birdie ASAP! I religiously followed his steps for the next few days and to my surprise, the spot evaporated completely. I never knew how porous ostrich skin was until this incident and it’s resiliency. For that, I am even more of a fan of Birdie.

@wongerisme

This is almost too terrible to post, but no one but Pursebops will understand!

In June, I bought my first Hermès bag-a Birkin 35-in Paris. I lugged it home to the US VIA two stormy days in Iceland, but while the bag was damp, the box and the bag made it back intact.

A few weeks later, I went to have my hair colored and cut. Yes, I took my bag. My hairstylist was eager to hear about my trip and see some of my purchases. (You all know what’s coming, right?) I hung the bag on the customary purse hook and she began…

So, she was coloring and we were chatting and suddenly I saw…a mark on my Birkin. I tried to be chill although I was having a heart attack but she saw me notice it and started to panic herself. She tried to wipe it with the hair color remover but I stopped her– really I couldn’t think but was so concerned the remover would do more harm than good. She apologized and cried and honestly, I couldn’t say anything but “I can’t talk about this right now!,” I was a wreck. (My hair and color was without charge that day but of course there was no way she could financially fix the situation; as well, she’s my friend.)

Well, I went home and sobbed to my husband. But we tend to get our perspective back quickly and have now named my bag “Dita” since it has a beauty mark (It looks like a small pen mark, but naturally it’s on the front!). Do I wish it were pristine? Um, yes. But it’s still beautiful and hardly noticible and as I don’t plan to resell it, I intend to simply enjoy owning and using Dita.

Still, does anyone have any guess as to whether Hermès could remedy this? I live closest to the Chicago store, but I am wary of them…I am thinking to wait until I next go to Paris ( whenever that will be) and ask the experts, but if you have any advice, I’d love to hear!

Thankfully I haven’t had major accidents with my babies, except once while taking photos of my blue lambskin Chanel by the pool and the bottom touched the water?. No major damage done. The BiG Disaster happened to my cousin, she just sat down for dinner at a restaurant to order. The waiter handed her a menu and by the time she ordered, she found a huge ink stain on her red Chanel Boy ???. The waiter’s pen was leaking and no one noticed it.. the bag is now in Chanel in London, hopefully they can manage to salvage it.

My name is Ashley and I am guilty of babying my bags.

I own an all leather Gucci “Jackie” bag and its my first which I still love even to this day. I worked OVERTIME and I did double shifts to earn my Jackie bag, and I always go back to her.

My ex threw my Gucci bag in the SNOW, along with it landing in the nasty snow, my compact blew up in my bag and I went ballistic on him. I grabbed his Louis Vuitton wallet (which I bought him) and I threw it in the snow NEAR the sewer… told him, “You did not like that did you…” and best believe someone was on my “blocked” list within 24 hours. I don’t take kindly to such abuse, especially when the item is 100% soft leather which damages in water/acid.

Hi everyone, my name is Anita and I don’t post too much here, I mostly read and view the the bag porn! I work really really hard on protecting my bags so I don’t have too much to deal with but the two worst things off the top of my head were first with my vintage Hermes Kelly bag, a gift from my grandma, one of the last gifts she got me before she died. I had a boyfriend who just does NOT understand anything about fashion or why I love it so much. Well one day, I was cooking and the house was very hot so I asked him to open the door, a while later I walked into the room he was in and saw that he had used my Kelly as a door stop to keep it open. My beautiful bag got a bit of a scratch it from the door but not too bad over all. I freaked out on him and he just rolled his eyes at me. I told him that him using my bag as a door stop would be the same as if I were to take his beloved guitar and (excuse me for being crass with this part) take a crap in the guitar hole and set it on fire.

The second bad incident with a bag, my mom got me a large LV tote as a push present to use for my baby’s dipar bag. It holds a lot and is wonderful but my nephew stepped on it and I panicked. On the outside it was fine and I thought nothing of it until later on I discovered he busted the baby cream into the bag and it does not come out. The cream stain is still there! My heart broke over the problem but I still use the bag.