How to Store Your Chanel Bags

A selection of self hand drawn keepsake cards

PRELUDE

I have had a handful of readers asking about how I tend to store my handbags. Granted, I would love to create a video of such but given that I have a pretty shit voice, I think just a simple blog post should suffice. 

More hand drawn pictures of a selection of Chanel bags

INTRODUCTION

Some handbags deserve a bit more care, particularly if they are very delicate. Not to mention, especially if you have invested quite a considerable amount of cash on those precious arm candies, it is essential that they are stored well to ensure that they stay new as long as possible, for the years to come. 

Classic Chanel bag and its original packaging, including box, dust bag, paper bag, acid-free paper lining, authenticity card, receipts and care instructions card

WHAT DO WE NEED

In general, when bought in-store, all Chanel bags would come with their original boxes and dust bags. The amount of additional paper lining the boxes are very variable. Sometimes, I prefer to add some extra acid-free & bleach-free paper to provide additional cushioning or padding. I like using felt cloth as they are soft and fluffy and are absolutely perfect at providing that extra protection for those scratch-prone & high maintenance lambskin

FELT FABRIC & ACID FREE BLEACH FREE PAPER

You can easily purchase the additional felt fabric from local crafts DIY shops and the acid free bleach free lining paper from most stationary stores. As these are so versatile, you can easily cut them according to the size of your bag and appropriate use/need. Felt fabrics come in a variety of colour and I personally prefer either black (for dark toned bags) and white (for lighter tones such as the Chanel beige claire) to minimise the possibility of colour transfer.

LINING THOSE BOXES

Here, I have purposefully added additional lining paper to keep the area padded such that the bag is suspended in a soft bed of support.

PROTECTING DELICATE AND SUSCEPTIBLE AREAS

It is crucial to provide extra protection to certain areas/parts of your Chanel bag (depending on the design). Allow me to illustrate with few common examples

Excuse the uneven red circles as it is hard to draw these with a mouse and under the influence of caffeine withdrawal.

Here, I have lined a sheet of felt fabric on top of the inner double flap to prevent the hardware from the metal zip and chain from marking the leather. Although the caviar is way more durable than the lambskin, through time, even they are susceptible to scratches/frictional marks.

The height and the position of the additional felt fabric can be altered and adjusted to allow easy secure closure of the CC lock as shown above.

Here, is yet another common example: The very popular Chanel Wallet-on-chain, also best known as Chanel WOC, highlighting (above picture in red circles) the areas  requiring extra protection using a sheet of black felt cloth (as below)

CHAINS: IN OR OUT?

Okay, this is yet another popular question being asked: Tuck the chains in OR Leave the chains out?
 It all depends on the type of the Chanel bag. Again, allow me to illustrate:

It may seem that apart from the size difference and the obvious colour difference, there isn't much else to say. However, the slight difference between these two Chanel bags means that in one, the chain can be tucked in but yet in the other, the chain has to be left out. More illustrations below:




SINGLE FLAP BAGS

This is a Chanel Jumbo Beige Claire which happens to be a single flap bag.

As there is only one flap, one could therefore easily tuck in the chains into the bag during storage since there is nothing blocking or in the way, unlike the double flap (two flap)

A felt cloth is placed in between the chains and the leather of the flap to prevent indentation marks.

More felt protection on the bag before keeping in the black Chanel dust bag.






DOUBLE FLAP BAG

On the other hand, this Chanel black M/L classic bag is a double flap. Thus, there is an inner 2nd flap (barrier) preventing one from placing the chains inside.

To counter this problem, I tend to wrap the full length of the chain in a roll of felt cloth, prior to storing it in the dust bag and storage box, as above. Doing this protects the hardware from undesirable tarnish and also protects the leather from frictional marks.









MAINTAINING THE SHAPE OF YOUR BAG

It is equally essential to maintain the original shape of the bag.

Chanel bags which are made with fabric instead of leather such as cotton/linen and satin may require additional inner padding during storage to keep their shape as nicely as possible. However, do take care not to overfill your bag as over-expansion may lead to irreversible damage.

I tend to use either bubble wrap or plain white wrapping tissue paper as the bag filler. Do remember to leave some gap, particularly if you are wishing to store the chains inside the bag during storage.

As per the usual, an outer felt cloth should protect chain markings on the outside of the bag.

COVER WITH DUST BAGS

If a dust bag is available, do use it. I also have a habit of keeping a tiny pack of absorbent within the storage box to ensure the environment remains dry. 

SMALL LEATHER GOODS

Not all Chanel bags come with a Chanel black dust bag when bought in-store. This is usually the case for small leather goods such as the wallets, purses and even the popular WOCs (Wallet on-Chains). Instead, these are typically wrapped in plain black felt cloths.

Chanel coin purse wallet and WOC with their original black felt cloths respectively

Covering a Chanel mini denim bag with white felt cloth.








VINTAGE CHANEL BAGS

Vintage Chanel bags are simply delightful to own and to keep. Majority of such vintage pieces are very unique, mostly down to the fact that the have managed to survive the decades with variable amounts of signs of usage. Some may be pristine, yet others may have lost their lustre. Nevertheless, each has its own special character and story to tell and that is the pure beauty of Vintage Chanel!

Vintage Jumbo XL red Chanel bag with its original white Chanel felt dust bag (black cc logo starting to fade due to its very vintage nature)


The trouble with vintage Chanel pieces is that not all of them come with their original packaging such as the dust bags and particularly their original boxes. If this is the case, fret not as there are plenty of alternatives.






ALTERNATIVE PACKAGING

If you are missing the original Chanel box, you could easily replace it with a Chanel shoe box (for small bags) or Chanel boots box (for larger bags like the jumbo sizes). Such Chanel footwear boxes are good substitutes as they are of the same design (black boxes with white "Chanel" letterings) and are typically composed of hard cardboard.

Chanel boots box used to store a large chanel bag instead.

 In addition, you could also use Chanel fragrance/cosmetic boxes which are typically hard white boxes with black "Chanel" letterings. These too usually come accompanied by Chanel white monogram tissue lining paper and are simply too pretty to resist.

Chanel white cosmetic gift box, Chanel black shoe dust bag and plain white felt cloth.


NO DUST BAGS? 

Well, don't worry if you don't have the original dust Chanel dust bags. You could easily replace it with a Chanel shoe dust cover (come in pairs). This is a brilliant alternative as the Chanel shoe dust bags look identical (black dust bags with white "Chanel" letterings). The only minor difference is that the strings on a footwear dust bag is significantly thicker than the handbag dust bag. (Also the string ends are untied).

If neither are available, then use a felt cloth. This is equally good.

KEEP ALL DOCUMENTS 

It would be most ideal if all relevant documents are kept together within in its respective boxes. I tend to store the original receipts, care card booklet, unique authenticity cards all together along with the exact handbag to avoid future confusion.

Original documents, all belonging to one single Chanel bag.

PERSONAL TOUCHES

Like most pathologists, I have a strong obsession to extreme attention to detail. For each of my bags, I have drawn a near exact replica on a note card, within which I can keep all the relevant documents. In addition, I have a habit of writing a short note on each, perhaps with the aim of telling the future heir a little short but special story of the origin of each bag .

FINALLY, STORE FLAT OR UPRIGHT?

Personally, if you have carefully stored each bag well in their boxes with additional protection, I genuinely think it doesn't matter whether the box is stored flat or upright. However, if you have limited storage place like myself, I would store the stack of boxes flat (front of bag facing upwards).

DISCLAIMER

Much as I like to think myself as a Chanel connoisseur, this is obviously far from the truth. As usual all pictures shown have been taken with the simple click of my right index finger and all pieces are from my personal collection.  If you have something useful to share, do drop me a note, especially if you have great ideas /thoughts on "how to store your favourite bag".

All comments welcomed (except nasty ones....just F*** off!  I mean it. Don't mess with an emotionally unstable & hormonal woman).