How to care for leather bags and coated canvas bags

If you've invested in a luxury handbag, a high quality weekender or similar, you should for sure also invest in caring for it. This also goes for good vintage bags. In this guide we go through how to clean, condition and protect bags in leather or coated canvas and make sure they look good and will be with you for a long time. Also info on recolouring and basic repairs of bags.

Why you should always care for your leather bags and coated canvas bags

The best thing with buying proper quality bags - either from luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Gucci etc. or from other makers of premium bags - is that they only become better and better looking with age, if you care for them properly. They get patina and character and become unique together with you. That's also why you can find many nice vintage bags of better quality, which often need even more care along the lines described in this guide.

Full grain leather including vacchetta leather, embossed grain leather, corrected grain leather and coated fabric all have one thing in common: they have a hard outer surface that makes the material look good and can withstand the environment well. The con with this hard surface, however, is that it can become brittle and crack. To prevent this, you need keep it clean and nourish the material to keep it soft and pliable. It's like your skin, which eventually also become dry and crack if you don't care for it, especially in harsh conditions. It's also good to use products to protect the materials so you don't have to clean and nourish it as often.

Note that the guidance given here works for most other products made of the same materials as the bags, for belts, wallets, watch straps etc., even jackets. It's mainly for footwear that things differ since they need more protection and can be recoloured easier since it doesn't risk staining clothes. We have other guides for shoe care, see here.

How to clean bags of leather or coated fabric

Bags are used outdoors in sometimes harsh weathers, it often spends hours in the sun, it's torned around, placed on the ground and so on. While not as extreme as for footwear which constantly is put under pressure, also bags get dusty and dirty and can get bad stains.

As a start, it's good to every now and then brush of your bag with a shoe brush or clothing brush, to remove surface dirt. If needed, you can take a wet dish cloth and wipe it off. This way you prevent the dirt from settle and create harm to the material.

Occasionally, a lot depending on type of bag and how it used, you need to do a more proper cleaning. For light coloured bags or bags that are used in winter in harsher conditions, you may need to clean it more often. For some you can go a long time between cleaning.

For bags or bag parts made of smooth full grain leather like vacchetta, nappa or chrome tanned ones, embossed grain leather and similar, Saphir Medaille d'Or Leather Cleanser is ideal. Saphir Medaille d'Or is the world's leader on premium shoe and leather care, active since the 1920's. This is a gentle cleaner that also works on sensitive leathers. Apply cleaner to a clean cotton cloth and rub in circular motions over the leather. When the cloth gets dirty, change place and continue. Note that it's recommended to always test products on a non visible surface first, to make sure it works well for your specific case.

For bags in coated canvas, like the famous Louis Vuitton monogram bags, or ones in various types of corrected grain leather, it's a bit different. The coating is a resin mix of rubber and plastics, which dirt doesn't go into the same way, so here only wiping goes a long way. For cleaning one use the multi-purpose product Saphir Medaille d'Or Corrected grain leather and coated fabric lotion. Apply to a cloth and rub in on the surface, let dry and then brush off. This also nourish and protect the coating, more on this below.

How to condition and protect leather bags and coated canvas bags

As mentioned above, for all types of leather that doesn't have a heavy coating on them, it's very important to nourish the leather. The outer grain surface will otherwise dry out and crack.

For most leathers we recommend Saphir Medaille d'Or Leather Lotion (also available in a version based on macadamia oil instead of mink oil), which contains natural oils that makes the leather soft and pliable and waxes that protects and can create a subtle shine.

It's easy to apply with a cloth over larger surfaces and goes deep into the leather. Let dry for 5-10 minutes and then brush the surface with a shoe brush or similar. The waxes will then harden which gives a natural protection, and if you brush with a softer brush you can also bring out a shine on many leathers.

For vegetable tanned and untreated leathers like vacchetta, Saphir has developed a special conditioner, the Saphir Medaille d'Or Vacchetta vegetable tanned leather balm. It's made to be very gentle also on light coloured unfinished leathers and not darken them. Use it the same way as described for the leather lotion above.

If you are after a completely natural patina, Saphir also has the Nappa conditioner, which only contains oils and hence only nourish, but doesn't protect. It's also very gentle.

How to clean, care for and protect suede bags

For bags in suede, which isn't as common, one need to use different products. Sometimes only parts of the bag is in suede, then this goes only for that part.

Suede doesn't have the hard outer surface given that here it's the corium with loser fibres on the inside of the skin that is used. It's then sanded to a velvety like finish. But given this, suede isn't as sensitive to cracking, but needs a bit more protection. That said, the way suede is tanned and treated in the tanneries today, together with modern waterproofing sprays, it's not at all as sensitive as many still think.

For regular care brush of surface dirt with a brush with horsehair of wild boar bristles. It's not recommended to use suede brushes just to remove dust, since it can be a bit harsh on the material if done often.

For a deeper cleaning, use a suede cleaner like Saphir Medaille d'Or Omninettoyant. Moist the accompanying brush, dip it in the product and work up a ladder on the suede. When the whole bag or suede part is cleaned, wipe if off with a moist cloth, and then let dry.

After a proper cleaning it's important to use a waterproofing spray, that also goes for completely new suede products. If the suede feels a bit dry and needs to be revived, use Saphir Medaille d'Or Suede Renovateur spray in neutral (pigmented spray risk have colour come off on your clothes etc.) which both nourish the suede and waterproof it. If you need extra protection, you can also use Saphir Medaille d'Or Super Invulner waterproofing spray, but for most bags the renovateur is well enough.

How to cover marks or recolour leather bags

As mentioned above, it's not recommended to use coloured shoe cream, since this can stain clothes, couches etc. But there's other products that is developed to attach stronger to the leather. Here we have the colour restoration cream Saphir Juvacuir. It's mainly intended tor repair signs of scuffing, scratches, and discolouration on leather. However, it can be used over larger surfaces as well. Apart from reviving colour it also contains some oils and waxes for care and protection.

Before use, make sure that the area to be recloured is completely clean (see above for cleaning leather, if you are to use Juvacuir it should be applied straight after cleaning, before conditioning). Apply a small amount of Saphir Juvacuir on a clean cotton cloth, and gently work it into the leather. Let dry for 15 minutes, and then buff it up with a horsehair brush or a cloth.

Note that since there's a lot of different types of leathers and tanning methods, and with age things can change further, so how well Juvacuir works can't be guaranteed. As with all leather care products, you should try it on a non-visible area first and make sure the result is how you wish it to be, and that it doesn't rub off.

If you need to do fully recolour your bag with leather dye, much more extensive work is needed. You can find guidance in this article.

How to repair leather bags and coated fabric bags

When it comes to repairing quality bags, it all depends on what type of damage you have. If it's loose seams, broken hardware or parts that have come loose completely, it's recommended to take your bag to a leather workshop or a cobbler and get professional help.

If it's deeper marks in the leather which you can't just cover, you can try to fix it with a Saphir Renovating Cream. Find the colour closes to the bag (you can mix colours to come closer, or even add a small amount of Juvacuir or shoe cream in a different colour to adjust it). Clean the leather product and put some of the repair cream on your finger tip to apply on the damaged area, and wipe off excess immediately. Then allow to dry.

Coated canvas is different and can't really be repaired in the same way. If one have deeper marks or scratches in this, best take it to a repair shop of some sort.

Other repairs that you can do yourself is if certain leather parts have come loose, where it's not stitching that needs to be sorted, you can glue it back in place with a good leather glue. We have a flexible super glue called Atomlim, note that this is very strong though. We also have Renia Syntic Total glue that works well on most material.