RESTORATION OF A LOUIS VUITTON EPI LEATHER VANITY

This 1987 Vanity model has suffered a spectacular cat attack. The leather cannot be recovered, it was brought to us to be completely redone,  no longer having any collector's value, it will be used for decoration and for everyday life . Scratches, urine stains ... the leather is totally damaged. The lock was also broken. The tacky interior prevented any use. We will only deal with exterior restoration in this article. 

Complete disassembly of this Vanity to replace the leather. It is a tedious job because the leather is very well glued. Each nail must be carefully disassembled to be replaced during reassembly. 

EPI Leather is a Louis Vuitton exclusivity . We therefore used a similar leather, but which is not epi leather. However, it has a similar long grain . Our choice fell on a very high-end leather, cognac color. This is a full grain leather tanning plant and aniline   dyed by hand.

Leather being a natural and full grain product (therefore not retouched) it has certain defects, we map out the skin to cut out all the parts necessary for the realization of the Vanity while respecting the colors.

The leather pieces are then trimmed in order to thin the ends of the leather. Gluing of the leather pieces face by face . This is the most interesting and exciting part. It will then be necessary to sheath the leather so that it perfectly follows the shapes of the suitcase.

We will carefully "gainer" leather, so he marries perfectly all corners of our Vanity. This work is very meticulous.

The edges or angles are made of cowhide leather. Part of the cow: Croupons. It is the best part of the leather, dense, firm and of regular thickness, it is used to make high-end items.

The natural color of the leather being a very light beige, we will have to tint it. We need to do a " shade search ". This step consists of mixing different pigments until the desired color is obtained. The leather is then soaked in the color to pigment it in the mass.

After tinting the edges, we nail them with brass tips which will be matted, in order to make the luggage waterproof. What is called at Louis Vuitton the lozinage. 

All solid brass hardware is cleaned and mirror polished. 

The original beige interior will be redone in red velvet according to the customer's choice.

Manufacture of identical corners.