Post date: Jul 23, 2012 12:14:38 PM
Two young entrepreneurs have created a concept for post-purchase care on one luxury good: handbags.The Indian pair opened the "Lovin' My Bag" store early this year in Dubai with promise to give those much cherished designer bags, shoes and belts a polish and a facelift to restore their look and value.
Local and expat owners of luxury handbags can now take their designer bags for restoration, colouring and all round pampering at the new handbag spa in Dubai.
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (JULY 18, 2012) (REUTERS) - Home to one of the world's largest malls, Dubai promotes itself as the destination for luxury goods lovers where if there is the will to spend thousands of dollars on designer items then there is a way.
"The locals have a big issue in terms of dye transfer from abayas, you see as soon as they buy a bag which is light colourred - like white or beige - and they actually step outside. Because of the humidity, the abaya (colour) gets transferred very easily onto the bags," said co-business owner Jai Tolani.
"But surprisingly what's actually happened is for us, as soon as we launched we had customers from everywhere, people have been keeping bags with coffee stains, with make up stains, people have dropped them in water, you know baby milk and stuff like that so we have had customers from all over," he added.
Tolani and his business partner Munjwan said their spa idea provides professional bag care not offered by bag vendors, laundry services or even the designer shops the bags came from.
Getting pampered at "Lovin' My Bag" can involve polishing, colour matching, cleaning and even dying the whole bag a different colour.
Even with prices ranging between 100-500 USD, Tolani says clients will spend money to polish a bag bought for a much higher price.
"For someone who is actually investing in luxury, some people actually pour all their savings, all of their money into handbags, now obviously when you are doing that, you should be very cautious about where you actually go with your possessions because these are prized possessions, anyone buying a bag for 10 thousand dollars, I'm sure they want to take care of it," Tolani said.
The concept of handbag spa originated in the US at the original "Lovin' My Bags" store. Tolani and Munjwan decided to franchise the store in Dubai last year and following their success here they intend to take it across the Middle East.