Aunty Detective: Removal of Stains From Vintage Handbags

Hooray, a question! From LM in Melbourne…

“i recently went to savers and the brotherhood of st.lawrence (both in footscray) and bought two bags- a plain brown sort of clutch/purse and what seems like a tiny snakeskin bag, to a total of $5. however, when i got home i saw that the plain brown bag had this extra mint gum patch stuck to the black lining and that the snakeskin-esque bag had some sort of glue/tree sap looking thing stuck near the inside zipper. my question to you is how would i go about removing these without causing significant damage to the bags? i think it would be a great idea if you could give advice to others on how to remove stains and such on vintage clothing, bags etc. through a blog entry.”

Yeah. Stain removal’s a bitch.

Why I Won’t Be Paying Vintage Prices For Glomesh, Mesh or Alumesh Bags

Before I start this wee rant, let me explain something about Glomesh. ‘Glomesh’ is a brand, but - sort of like Kleenex for tissues and Coke for cola - it has become such a successful name that it is now synonymous with the thing itself. The proper term for ’Glomesh’ items not produced by the Glomesh brand is ‘mesh’ or ‘alumesh’, and usually items that are genuine Glomesh will command a higher price than unlabelled bags and purses made of the glamorous fiesta-in- questionable-taste that is mesh.  

Now for the rant.

Mesh bags and purses are currently being sold at a premium in vintage stores, but in this humble blogette’s opinion, they aren’t worth buying at this price point. Yet.

See, the thing about mesh/alumesh is that:

1) it’s not scarce
2) it’s usually not stunningly well made, and
3) there is usually not enough differentiation between pieces to spawn bands of loyal collectors, unless people are looking for original Glomesh pieces, which I think were first produced in the late 1950s.