Remember the bag from yesterday's outfit?
A few weeks ago I was contacted by Handbag Clinic. They invited me to send a handbag of my choice to them for treatment so that they could restore it, hopefully, to its former glory. I left my handbag outside for collection and when the treatment had been completed, they called me and delivered it back, all without any cost.
So as to put Handbag Clinic to the test, I chose a very much loved but very damaged pale duck egg blue handbag from Jigsaw. It had reached the point that it could no longer be used but equally I couldn't bear to part with it, so there it sat in the wardrobe - loved but neglected in equal measure.
Handbag Clinic officially launched in August
2013, however its sister company Furniture Clinic has been offering handbag
repairs for several years. Managing Director Ben Staerck decided that a company devoted
exclusively to handbag repair would be of more benefit to customers who owned
high value pieces demanding the greatest levels of care and dedication. They work on all
types of bags from designer names such as Chanel, Jimmy Choo, Hermes and
Mulberry and every day thousands of pounds worth of bags arrive in need of
help. At anyone time they have over £150,000 worth of handbags in the department.
Aside from the repairs and restoration service offered, they also
offer Stain Cover. This is a so called ‘Handbag Insurance’ which starts from
£4.95 a month. Should your handbag become stained, they will collect it, remove the
stain and protect it for the future before sending it back. This is such a great idea for anyone with a Calamity Jane type personality, or for anyone who has lots of beautiful but delicate bags, which they would like to use without worrying about them.
Here are some before shots of the handbag. I know, it's in a sorry state. I think that I tried to clean it myself some years back but clearly it didn't work!
And here are the after shots. It is totally amazing! I can't quite believe that it's the same bag.
All of the stains are gone and it has been restored to its original beautiful colour.
Without sounding totally dramatic and hysterical about these things, I'm really happy that it has been restored and it's a weight off my mind to know that it is no longer just sitting there unable to be used. It's a bit like when you have those niggly jobs that bug you but you don't quite know what to do about them and it's only when they're fixed that you realise how much they have been bugging you. Or is that just me?!
The bag was given a colour restoration, which involved thoroughly cleaning it. The stains were removed and the colour was matched from the inside (where it hadn’t faded and it was the original colour). A full coat of colour was applied to the entire outside, which was sealed in with a clear lacquer. The cost of a similar treatment would be around £150.
Handbag Clinic has extended to readers of Style Guile, a half price Age Defying Protection, reducing the cost from £30 to £15. The Age Defying Protection is an invisible cream which is applied to the handbag and which repels staining by providing a barrier between the handbag and anything with which it comes into contact. Should it become stained, it can easily be wiped clean.
Please just quote ‘BG50’ at the checkout or via email. The offer is available until January 31st. I dealt with Charlotte at the Handbag Clinic and she was lovely, so if you have any queries, do give her a call on 01207 279963.
So for anyone with a beautiful handbag languishing at the back of a cupboard unable to be used, Handbag Clinic may just be able to come to your rescue.
I should just add at this point that this is probably the one and only time that I will be in total agreement with anything that Liz Jones from the Daily Mail says. She too had a handbag treated by Handbag Clinic and loved the results. Actually, that's not entirely fair. She did say nice things about fashion bloggers. Once...
