The bag that you carry says a lot about your personality and lifestyle, and women definitely spend a lot of their money on handbags. Handbag sales reached $11.5 billion last year, up 5% from 2014, according to market research firm NPD. And handbag shoppers often do a lot of homework before making the purchase, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, handbag return rates at luxury online retailer Net-a-Porter are among the lowest across the site.
“By the time they’ve made their selection, what they’ve got is what they expected,” says Sarah Rutson, vice president of global buying. Ms. Rutson has expanded Net-a-Porter’s handbag offering in the last 18 months “to great success,” she says. “A woman invests in her bag because it gets a hell of a lot of wear.”
But what happens once you’ve got the bag? How do you take care of it? Whether you need to remove lipstick stains, discolouration on the handles, or maintain the suppleness of leather, here are our top three picks for bag cleaning services in Singapore.
Photo: Nyen
Balenciaga
- Drop off at one of their four locations across the island
- Service staff does analysis of bag and suggests treatment(s) required
- They use Korean technology of High Performance Coating which protects your bag against moisture, fungus, discolouration and oxidization for up to eight months. It even repels 90% of water, so it’s ideal for suede, lambskin and suede
- You can choose the extent of recolouring based on your budget. Choose whether to colour just the four corners, or include the interior trimming.
- What we love about it: The Balenciaga bag (that’s eight years old!!!) was restored to its original condition with a shiny gloss and the woven thread on the handle was recoloured as well. The trimming and edges that were very worn out were restored to as good as new. The leather was supple and the hardware was polished to perfection.
Photo: Nyen
Celine
- Send pictures of bag via Whatsapp so assessment can be made
- Customers can arrange to drop off the bag at CleanMaster’s office, or drop off at Novena or Bugis MRT. If the total cost is more than $200, complimentary pickup and delivery is available
- When pick-up was arranged, brochures were provided to provide some examples of what can or cannot be done, in terms of cleaning, colour restoration and hardware reparation
- The international franchise has outlets in Japan, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan
- What we love about it: The Céline bag and had several stains due to abrasion from darker fabrics, which made the bag look dirty. These stains were significantly lightened so the effect was cleaner and the bag looked newer. There were a couple of lipstick stains as well that also became almost unnoticeable. The material of the bag (nubuck) also made the cleaning process trickier but the clear explanation of the service staff really helped with my understanding that the felt-like texture was a result of tiny hairs on the surface so in order to lighten the stain, these tiny hairs would inevitably be shortened and the texture would feel different
Photo: Nyen
Givenchy
- All you have to do is schedule a time and date, and complimentary pick up and delivery is provided. Receive updates on the status of your bag via email.
- Founded in 1969 in London, Jeeves was located near Buckingham Palace and dedicated itself to the valeting requirements of Westminster's well-to-do. Today Jeeves operates nine shops in London as well as shops in other key capital cities around the world. Jeeves' clients are top tier professionals and include HRH The Prince of Wales.
- Key employees are trained at the Jeeves facility in London and in order to ensure standards of the highest quality we receive regular visits from headquarters management.
- What we love about it: Jeeves maintained the natural looking cream colour of the Givenchy bag. Black marks and scuffing from wear and tear on the base of the 6-year old bag were removed. The goldtone of the hardware was polished and the interior leather panelling and fabric of the bag was cleaned as well. A bonus? Jeeves cleaned the dustbag as well, and tried to remove the stains on it, but when they couldn't, they added a note that they had tried "using all means possible."
By Debby Kwong & Joyce Cheo