Help! Massive water stain on designer handbag - how can I get it removed?

[millie19]

stupidly I didn't do the lid up tightly enough on my dd's water bottle and didn't realise it had emptied it's contents in the bottom of my Mulberry handbag which I love to death. Help! Does anyone know how I can get it removed? The bag is dark brown and the stain is on both sides and the underneath. It looks awful. I did nothing but remove the wet contents and hang the bag up on clothes airer to let it dry. Haven't dared to do anything to it other than that. sad

I had exactly the same thing with a mulberry handbag (oak phoebe) about 6 years ago - the stain did fade but was always visible.

So in the end I actually claimed on my household insurance and got the money back minus the £50 excess.

I feel your sadness though.

Go to purseforum.com and look in the mulberry section. All sorts of bag saving advice there

The problem with a big water stain is that it makes the leather go sort of crispy if that makes sense - I really would claim on your insurance.

Don't try any treatment until it is bone dry, though, as you might lock in the stain.

iarebaboon that purse forum.com site is brilliant. Am going to try some of the gel they & Mulberry recommend on there. Thank you! I've dried the bag out totally now so will take a fresh look at it in the morning to see how bad it really is.

There are some people on that website though who carry plastic bags in their Mulberry's in case it rains so they can put them in the placcy bag so the Mulberry doesn't get water marks on them! Erm, hello real world!? Mad!

I've had this problem with my mulberry. What I did is I 'massaged' the leather by folding the water marked sections inwards and outwards for a while. It can take quite some time but it works a treat.

Well to be honest it sounds like a plastic bag would be a good idea in the real world!

Plastic bag is a really good idea

I tend not to take mine out if the forecast is for rain!

Would it be worth trying saddle soap or leather oil? None of my tack is water stained despite riding in the rain. Doesn't always smell yucky either, I have a leather oil which smells of almonds.

I did this with my Mulberry - took it to a Mulberry shop where they advised against using any products. They advised similar approach to China i.e. keep folding the leather over and rolling between fingers. Took a while but it did work.

this happened to a leather bag of mine, albeit it wasn't a mulberry

I dipped the whole bag in water so the stain matched , worked a treat!

saying that I gave the bag to dd after that.

I tipped a whole coffee cup in mine, was devasated, only ook about 2 weeks and then the stain faded compleely, I did damp sponge the inside out because i was coffee.

Ok so am going to try this place, Furniture Clinic who deal with designer bags stain removal - they say they get Mulberry bags in nearly every day as the leather is so soft on them it stains really easily. Look at their photo gallery in the handbag section. I figured its worth a try as The bag is so ruined anyway that it cant really get any worse! And esp having found out how much dh paid for it. Will let you all know - if they do a brilliant job i will send my Bayswater bag in too as it got trashed at a Kylie concert (all that moshing! )

Update on Mulberry Somerset staining - Furniture Clinic did a great job, leather is soft and not stained again and bag looks far better than i ever expected!

Wow that's brilliant !

That's great!!

How much did it cost?

Brilliant, thanks have just emailed them about a few handbags I have that need cleaning.

It was about £100 but insured P&P is on top of that. I figured that my bag cost alot more than thay and it was basically ruined so i was willing to pay anything to get it repaired! Hope it all goes well with your respective bags....am going to send in my Bayswater bag too a that's got stains on the bottom of it! Good luck! :-)