Retouch or Recolor: which does your bag need?

Leather loses colour in two different ways. Sometimes one spot wears through: a corner that rubs against your hip, a scratch from a car door, a handle darkened by hands. Other times the whole bag fades slowly, until it looks tired all over. Choosing between Retouch or Recolor comes down to which of these you are looking at.

Both treatments put new colour back into the leather. The difference is how much of the bag they cover.

What Retouch does

Retouch re-colours one area only and matches it to the rest of the item. It suits bags where most of the colour is still good, but a few places have worn or been marked. Typical examples:

• Bottom corners rubbed pale from being set down
• A scratch or scuff on the front panel
• A small stain that cleaning alone cannot lift

Retouch starts from Rp700.000 and usually takes 2–4 working days.

What Recolor does

Recolor is our full colour restoration. The bag is cleaned, the edges are restored, and all of the leather gets an even new colour. Choose it when the fading is spread across the whole piece, when patches of wear have joined up, or when you simply want the bag to look fresh again.

Because Recolor includes Cleaning and Edging, it is the bigger job. It starts from Rp800.000 and usually takes 4–7 working days.

Retouch or Recolor: a quick way to decide

Put the bag under daylight and look at it from arm’s length. If your eye goes straight to one or two spots and the rest looks fine, a Retouch is likely enough. If the whole surface looks dull or uneven, or you count more than a few worn areas, a Recolor will give a better, more even result.

A few other things push the choice towards Recolor:

• The colour has shifted with age, so a new patch would stand out against it
• The edges of the straps and handles are cracked as well
• You would like the bag in a fresher shade of its original colour

We confirm the choice before we start

You do not have to decide alone. Send us a few photos through our free consultation and our team will recommend a treatment and send an estimate on WhatsApp. When you drop the bag off, we inspect it in person and confirm the treatment and final price before any work begins. Prices are starting points and can change with the item’s condition, material and size.

You can see more finished pieces in our before and after portfolio.