Handbag spa opens in Dubai
Two entrepreneurs recently opened Lovin My Bags, a ‘handbag spa’ in Jumeirah, Dubai for repairing and restoring beloved leather bags. Since opening the store, Jai Tolani and Dhiraj Munjwani have become familiar with the tales of neglect which handbag owners tell them. Mr Tolani told local media that one of their projects, a Louis Vuitton Mahima bag, “sat in a cupboard for two years”. “Look at it now. It took us three weeks and cost around $400 to restore but the bag cost about $2,700 so it is worth it.”
The concept behind Lovin My Bags is simple – a leather cleaning and restoration service with designer handbags as its primary, though not exclusive, focus. It is where bags come to be cleansed, moisturised, pampered and protected – to have years taken off their appearance.
Customers bring in their bags (or other leathergoods), the damage is assessed and the repair done. In most cases the item will be returned to the client but some are sold as ‘preloved’ bags.
Mr Tolani said: “A lot of women have a fetish for handbags but more and more people are becoming aware of the value of the luxury they buy. There is not such a disposable approach to it as there was maybe a few years ago. Whether you can afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars on an Hermès over and over or whether you have saved up to buy one special bag, the attitude now is that women want to care for that purchase.”
