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JERACO, ACCESS & OTHER QUALITY BRANDS
This is the second in a series of articles
on unusual fabric stain removal chal-
lenges we face at Bedminster ON-SITE
Drapery Care. We thought for this
issue it would be of interest to instead
review a recoloring assignment having
to do with leather rather than fabric.
Recoloring can be considered the
opposite of stain removal.
Recently, we were commissioned to
restore a 15-ish year old Chanel, lamb-
skin jacket, which had suffered severe
sun damage (see Picture #1).
Although our client explained that she
had five more Chanel jackets just like
it hanging in her closet, this one was
her favorite but that she had not been
able to enjoy it for several years due to
color fading.
The leather jacket in question was ani-
line lambskin. Aniline lambskin is a
very fine, comfortable to the touch,
unprotected leather. The coral pink
color had been “bleached out” by the
sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays. The color
loss was uneven and, as usually is the
case, the upper part of the left sleeve
had received the brunt of the damage.
This is due to the sun’s rays hitting this
exposed part of the garment through
the driver’s side window.
The correct, original color can be
found by examining the leather on the
inside of the jacket where the sun’s
rays never enter. We can compare this
undamaged original color with the
faded color on the outside of the jack-
et (see picture #2). We shipped the
jacket to our artist in North Carolina,
who mixed the exact color matched to
the inside of the sleeve, returning the
jacket with this custom dye to us.
First, we prepare the leather to accept
the new dye by treating it with a spe-
cial leather cleaner. Once dry, we apply
a first coat of dye to the entire jacket.
This is followed by additional coats as
required until the correct shade is
achieved. Each added coat darkens
about one-half zone. The jacket must
be dried completely in between coats,
which is time consuming. The correct
shade must be achieved in no more
than six coats as beyond that no color
change will occur.
The problem we run into is that
leather, unlike fabric, takes dye
unevenly. Different areas require more
dye coats than others and the dye has
to be feathered in just right in order to
look even. This is where expertise
comes into play. Meticulous attention
is required as mistakes cannot be cor-
rected. To complicate matters, some-
times, because of both the age of the
leather and the severity of sun degra-
dation, some areas of the leather
might simply not absorb any color.
Unfortunately, one cannot predict this
ahead of time.
Such was the case particularly with the
left sleeve of the jacket where the color
simply refused to darken (see Picture
#3). We were already at several coats
of dye and remember, one can only
apply up to six coats. Running out of
options, we decided to add exactly
three drops of black dye to the remain-
ing coral dye, which had the effect of
producing a much darker coral shade.
This magically enabled us to force the
color into the reluctant sleeve area,
thus giving the jacket the desired, uni-
form shade (see Picture #4).
After complete drying, the jacket was
treated to a tannery-like softening fol-
lowed by a UV protectant treatment.
In retrospect, had I known how much
the replacement cost of this jacket
was, I might have hesitated to take on
the project. Nevertheless, our customer
was quite pleased with her newly
restored, lambskin jacket.
CHANEL JACKET RECOLORING
By: Mitch Frieber, Bedminster ON-SITE Drapery Care
#1
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#3
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