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Attn Tanya: Dye on white handbags

Did you ever get the dye off your new white handbag?

While in Hong Kong, I wore my ATL Ponte Knit sheath, and it was so hot and humid AND a little rainy, I discovered later that the black dye had rubbed off all over my white handbag! It was *everywhere.* I thought the bag was completely ruined.

But I ended up rescuing it with hairspray. Lots and lots of hairspray.... spray, let sit, rub it in, rinse off with a washcloth, repeat.

It still needs a good wipe-down with the leather cleaner, and possibly some more hairspray on a few stubborn spots, but it worked pretty good.

The latest reply was from shiny . You can follow further contributions to the conversation through the RSS 2.0 feed.


7 Replies

Posted 1 month ago

Yes! Maya told Louise to do the same and hairspray was the savior of the day.

Posted 1 month ago

Thanks for this tip - I have a 'chalk' white bag that I dearly love and it is very grey-grungy looking...I will give this a try. I've tried hairspray but maybe not enough.
Did you have any problems with the finish coming off at all?

Posted 1 month ago

No, the finish did not come off. But the hairspray didn't restore it completely - it was A LOT of dye!! Everywhere the dress touched. :-(

I tried cleaner on it tonight, but I think it needs more work with the hairspray or some other solvent. I will probably take it to the cobbler's and let them fix it up for me at this point. It has a braided handle, which is the most difficult part to clean.

Posted 1 month ago

No really Shiny. Thank you very much for this info. I have tried on some hairspray, which removed the stains somewhat,m but also made the color turn a bit yellowish, which made me scared. In the meantime the bag got even more stains. I should probably take it to a cobbler.

May I ask which type of hairspray were you using? Maybe I just tried the wrong one...

Posted 1 month ago

Paul Mitchell. I used nearly the entire travel size container! No yellowing. Of course, it made the purse sticky, so I had to rinse it a lot, which made me worry. I do think the cobbler can restore it - it's about 90% there (except for the braided handles, which look grubby). I was going to get it professionally cleaned then put it away for the winter anyway (it's an optical white, not a cream - better for summer?).

Next question: I wonder if there's anyway to set the dye on this ATL dress, so it doesn't happen again?

I also had another question for you, Tanya: have you washed your INC ponte knit pants yet? It says they can be machined washed, but I'm nervous about that. Thoughts?

Posted 1 month ago

Thanks Shiny! I will give it another try on a small spot and see what happens. And sorry to ask this again, but you mentioned some kind of cleaner from Coach before, what was it's correct name?

Thanks again!

I have not washed my INC pants yet, I have only worn them once. I definitely plan to put them in the washer and maybe even dryer. But, they are a size too big on me so I am sort of hoping that they shrink so that i do not have to take them to the tailor...

Posted 1 month ago

Tanya, it's called Coach Leather Moisturizer. It's not a cleaner. They told me to use this to clean my leather bags; I guess the Coach Cleaner is for their signature bags?

It did work to remove the dye before - which now I do know was from the same ATL dress. But that wasn't a lot of dye, more like a smudge, and not like this time. (It was lightly raining in HK that day - I was under an umbrella but I guess the dress got a little moist despite it). I have also used this product on my banana bag with success, and it does an excellent job removing normal every-day city dirt.

I'm planning to duplicate the Inc pants in black - I see that's back online now in my size. However, the fabric content sounds a little different. Crossing fingers it'll fit the same as the gray...

I don't want mine to shrink - they are perfect right now! I will probably line dry them.

Posted 1 month ago