A spa for your handbags

DUBAI In a city of spas comes an unusual first: a spa for handbags. Brought to Dubai by Jai Tolani and Dhiraj Munjwani, Lovin’ My Bags is the city’s first handbag and leather restoration store.

“It’s a concept that began over 35 years ago in the US and we’re the first one to bring the franchise to the Middle East,” says Tolani.

Located in Palm Strip Mall on Jumeirah Beach Road, the handbag spa offers old, tired and worn out bags a much-needed pampering experience, often giving them a new lease on life.

The duo specialises in cleaning and restoring designer brands such as Chanel, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Dior, among countless others, to their former glory.

“In this part of the world, climate is the biggest culprit,” says Munjwani. “A majority of the bags that are brought in to us for cleaning or restoration have been destroyed by climatic conditions and humidity.”

The second largest problem handbags face is from clothes, says Tolani. “We’ve had many bags brought in stained and damaged from the dye on abayas and jeans. Depending on the fabrics, damage and services required cleaning and restoration can take anywhere from one to eight weeks.”

Colour-matching process

At a cost of just Dh100 for minor cleaning going up to Dh1,700 for a complete restoration, prices vary based on work required.

“Most of the bags that come to us cost over Dh30,000 to begin with. When you’ve paid that sort of money on a handbag, it makes sense to want to shell out a little bit more to restore it to its earlier condition,” says Tolani, who specifies that the real art of restoration comes from the colour-matching process. “When you clean a stain off leather, the material restores itself to its original colour. Therefore, it’s up to us to mix and match various colours to create the exact shade as on the rest of the bag.”

And just as with any spa, customers can choose from a host of treatments including cleaning and stain removal, complete colour restoration, water and stain protection, fixing handles and corners, colour changing, oil and ink extraction, PH correction, silk treatments, shine restoration and disinfecting.

For a true bagista, this is pure bliss.