Chanel Lambskin - 3 Year Wear and Tear Review

It’s approaching the 3 year anniversary of the purchase of my lambskin mini rectangle so I thought I’d do a status check for you on the bag. It’s a 20 series, navy blue lambskin rectangular mini with matte gold hardware. I picked this up at the Rue Montaigne store in Paris in December 2014.

Upon doing my research, I see tons of reviews of the mini rectangle in terms of size, shape, what fits,  first impressions, and also reviews on caviar vs. lambskin.  However I don’t see a lot of videos or blogs talking about the actual wear and tear on lambskin. 

Context

To be honest, when I first bought this, I had little knowledge of the different types of leathers that Chanel used (I know, I know…).  I just went into the boutique in Paris, and said I wanted a small flap bag and the SA returned with some options.  I basically chose the prettiest one, which so happened to be lambskin. So needless to say that for most of this bag’s life, I really had no idea it was supposed to be treated with such care. I wasn’t necessarily careless with it, but I wasn’t lambskin careful with it, if you know what I mean. 

I didn’t do any pre-treating of this bag. SA’s will say it’s not necessary. For the first year, I wore this a lot on weekends for shopping, dinners or events/weddings.  I believe this is where most of the wear and tear came from. 

In the 2^nd year, I used it less, mainly because I didn’t go out as much. Actually, for the first 2 years, I did not even store it properly.  I stored it in the tiny box it came with, which you’re apparently not suppose to do (gasp!) so the flap of the box was pressing down on the quilting, which ran the risk of flattening it out.

So here’s the damage....

There's nothing really on the front, except for the right edge of the top flap.  Nothing on the back. A few dents on the inside of the bag.  The quilts are still quite puffy. There is very slight creasing at the top from being opened and closed.  The corners show the most wear of course.  Depending on the lighting, they can look quite significant. It looks like the colour has worn off and it’s sort of white. I’ve been able to get out minor scratches using the oil on my finger, but the larger scuffs on the corners are here to stay.  Just going to try to prevent them from getting worse.   The leather on the chain strap has creased with wear, but nothing significant to report.

There are some minor scratches on the CC plate, however any little scratch will be noticeable because of the matte gold hardware.  There's a little tarnishing of the turnlock.

Reviews say that the lambskin will develop a patina and get more shiny over time.  To be honest, I don’t know if this has happened. I haven’t looked at it frequently enough to notice a difference. And I don’t have any pictures from the early days of when I bought it to compare it to.

How do I feel?

To be honest, I have gone back and forth between selling this bag to get a caviar or keeping it.  It does break my heart to see the scratches on the corners, and wish I had been more careful with it.  However, the damage is really not that bad considering how much I put it through.  So if you're deciding between a caviar and lambskin, just know what lambskin is not THAT delicate. 

For now this bag is staying in my closet  Every time I think I’m ready to let it go, I take one look at it and can’t bear to part with it!!  It’s become increasingly difficult to get your hands on a mini from the boutique, so I’m worried that if I let it go, I won’t find another one to my liking.  So for now it's staying and will be my special occasion bag that I really only bring out to special events or date nights.