KUALA LUMPUR, April 13 — When 63-year-old Clifford Tan retired from developing projects, he did not expect to start his own business. Especially something so vastly different from what he did before.

But for the past five years, Tan and his wife, Lee Siew Mei, 56 have been refreshing luxury handbags, leather jackets, shoes and wallets.

The couple repairs hundreds of bags monthly, all without any form of advertising except through the word of mouth of their customers. They don’t even have their own website for the company, Leather Biz.

“I wasn’t doing much five years ago. I discovered a shop where they had a set of products for leather items. It was actually for car leather seats. I saw that it was not used a lot and it dawned upon me that I could use it for leather handbags. For some reason, leather came to mind even though I knew nothing about handbags,” said Tan.

The couple then started asking around if any of their friends wanted their handbags repaired. Through Lee, Tan started by experimenting on their friends’ handbags.

He opened them up for fixing and in the process learned how handbags are made. It didn’t matter which designer brand it came from, Tan was set on learning the different characteristics of each bag. From Hermes to Chanel to high street brands made of PVC, Tan worked on countless bags.

“I was lucky that Mei’s friends were brave enough to let us work on their precious bags. The first few times we did it, it wasn’t totally bad but it was far from what we can do today. Since then, we’ve been working on hundreds of items, including shoes, belts and other leather products,” said Tan.

The journey has been a humbling experience for the couple because it was something they had never done before. And the opportunity they got was really the learning process. Most of the time, customers would take the risk and trust them. That is what keeps Tan motivated.

“It motivates us to see the satisfaction of our customers. Many of our customers are happy and our client base is growing,” said Tan.

Tan is known internationally for his ability to restore handbags so much so that he even trains other bag restorers from Hong Kong and Indonesia. He even has customers from Switzerland and many other parts of the world.

Usually the items that come in are in a scuffed condition, be it from mould, wear and tear, staining, deterioration and more. What he does is to remove the paint and then use colour to restore the item.

“The market out there does not know that we can colour bags. Whenever a bag gets stained, there are many different layers involved. It depends on whether it is open leather or closed leather. If it’s open leather, it means the absorption is high so if I spill liquid on it, it will go through the layers, deep into the leather,” said Tan.

In order to remove the stain, it takes more than just colouring over it. He has to remove the stain then work towards restoring it to its original state by colouring it. But not all items require colouring. It all depends on the material, the stain and the solution used.

Lee Siew Mei handles more of the administrative and customer service work

“Firstly, you have to understand the materials and different types of leather. How it was tanned, which part of the calf it came from. Next, you have to find out how it was manufactured. From there, you learn about how a person uses the bag. How it got stained. Then, learn about the materials and products you have in hand. Finally, understand how to apply it on the bag.”

So far, the biggest challenge Tan faces is finding good people to work with. He explained that it was not about the skill in restoration but more of the attitude of his employees. It also requires a passion towards artisanal things and craftsmanship.

Tan spray paints a Prada bag to give it a refreshing look (left). Clifford Tan uses a variety of colours to blend before applying it to the leather goods (right)

“The most important thing about restoring bags is that you cannot be colour blind,” joked Tan. Because there are so many colours in different bags, blending is required to get a certain shade. The hardest colour to blend is pink, said Tan. It doesn’t matter what shade of pink it is but it is the toughest colour to blend.

A worker repairs a pair of leather shoes

Tan gave some advice on how to maintain leather handbags. “Keep them stuffed. Do not leave them empty because the material can become soft over time. If you have a dust cover, put it in the dust cover. Also, do not stack your bags together. It can cause colour transfer. Another thing you must keep in mind is to understand our environment, the humidity and moisture. It can cause mould or disintegration,” said Tan.

The good thing about leather bags these days is that they don’t require much maintenance, according to Tan. Also, he says that the reseller market is a growing business. Some of his customers buy bags from resellers and send them to Leather Biz for restoration. Others restore them before putting them on sale.

On average, cleaning and mould treatment services would take up to two weeks. For minor repairs and colouring, it would take Tan five to six weeks. If you want to change the colour of your bag, it would take eight weeks.

Lee Siew Mei and Clifford Tan stays under the radar but are well known in Malaysia for leather restoration

At the end of the day, Tan said he really has God to thank for giving him this chance to go on this journey. “Every day I just trust in Him and it has been a humbling experience.”

Leather Biz

Care and Restoration

G-2-10 Plaza Damas

No.60, Jalan Sri Hartamas 1,

50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Tel: +603 6206 1708+603 6206 1708