Vintage Restore Alabang Hills: The bag doctor is in
And now, Vintage Restore, the popular go-to “bag hospital,” is serving metro residents down south with its latest store located at Madison Galeries, the refreshingly new four-story lifestyle mall in Alabang Hills’ booming neighborhood.
“Strategically located near Alabang’s posh villages, our southern clients will now have easy access to Vintage Restore’s luxury leather care, repair and restoration services,” says lovely bag lady Trisha Cruz-Cuason, co-owner of Vintage Restore with mom Edna Buenviaje-Cruz and sister Lally Cruz-Dizon, who’s the creative spirit behind the awardwinning bags that the store also carries. “We decided to put up a branch in the south due to numerous requests from clients not just from Alabang, Parañaque, and Las Piñas but also from nearby Santa Rosa, Laguna, Batangas, and Cavite.”
Vintage Restore Alabang Hills creates a higher standard for luxury leather repair and restoration (hey, these ladies care as much for your bags as you do). The store boasts mirrored walls and shelves displaying the luxury exotic skin bags of Lally Dizon, which have found their way to Qatar, Dubai, and Japan, and one-of-a-kind vintage and antique jewelry pieces from Trisha Cuason.
Yes, Vintage Restore Alabang, says Trisha, offers the same services as the other branches. And there’s more. The new store is now also giving a 10-percent discount for its Alabang branch clients.
Trisha discloses, “Aside from the usual repair and restoration we’ve been doing for the past nine years, Vintage Restore is now able to redye stained and discolored patent leather. We are also able to reconstruct and resize bags to give them a new look!”
The Leader In Leather Restoration
True, leather restoration services have sprouted all over the metro, but what inarguably gives Vintage Restore the cutting edge is its almost 35 years of experience in bag manufacturing (they know bags inside out). The indefatigable mother-daughters team has produced bags for big brands in America, Europe, and Japan. Luxury brands in Manila have endorsed Vintage Restore to their clients. The impeccable quality of repair, coupled with the best repair specialists (more on that later), is another advantage of having Vintage Restore take care of your luxury leather goods.
Rest assured that once you’re admitted to Vintage Restore, you — and, of course, your “sick bag” — will be attended to pronto and given the best personalized treatment. But when you go to a Vintage Restore branch, you will not feel like you’re in a repair shop. The luxe vintage vibe of the store is surely one of the things Vintage Restore clients are raving about.
From Car Repair To Bag Care
Fact is, the inspiration for the store is totally unrelated to bags. Trisha relates, “During a study tour in Japan, we had to go to different institutions and one of the places we went to was a Toyota factory. I saw that they do not only produce cars, they also had a service department that does repair and restoration of damaged vehicles. This was my aha moment! Why not apply what I saw in the car factory by adding repair services in our store, which we did in 2004. We practiced with our own bags to perfect the technology! It took years to perfect the manufacturing of leather goods. That was in process. Thank God, we grew up in the leather goods manufacturing business, which gave us a big advantage in finding the solutions! We had the right machines and well-trained artisans.”
Trisha is proud to add, “I would say we have the best artisans, most of whom have been with us since we started this business. My mother Edna Cruz was trained by the best German consultants in bagmaking. She brought along these consultants who trained our workers on the art of making great quality bags. Recoloring bags is our strength. One bag we recolored made our client, who came all the way from Doha, Qatar, extremely happy. She came to Manila just to have her Abaya stained Hermes cleaned and redyed. She was overwhelmed with the result that she wanted to franchise our business in the Middle East!”
You, too, will probably be overwhelmed when you see your damaged, battered bag come to life! Trisha reveals the secret, “Most of our cleaners are manufactured abroad, mostly from Italy, the United States and Japan. Our machines are German-made. We use imported leather, but we also get from a reliable local supplier. These materials are made to last, they’re the same materials we use in manufacturing bags, which passed international standards.”
To Dye For
Now you know why Vintage Restore has a legion of happy, satisfied, loyal customers who include celebrities. “Maxene Magalona was pretty happy with the redying of her Balenciagas,” Trisha shares. “She was amazed with the way we redyed her stained patent Givenchy Pandora. And I was very happy to see her use the bag during her recent trip to Tokyo.”
She adds, “Most of our clients are socialites who have been very loyal since we started the business almost 10 years ago. We also have network executives from the two biggest stations in the country, magazine editors, distinguished women entrepreneurs, merchandisers from luxury houses, and a lot more! Among our valued clients are jeweller Macky Fah, photographer to the stars and Nice Print owner Charisse Tinio, magazine publisher Sari Yap, and international jeweller Ann Ong. I’m proud to say that we got a five-star rating on Facebook. I get a lot of emails from satisfied clients who are in awe of the repair we have done for them. Some would even send before-and-after photos of their bags which I would post on our Facebook and Instagram accounts.”
From Bags To Riches
All Vintage Restore branches boast a fine bag collection, too, by Lally Dizon. Lally recently launched her Polilla line for spring-summer 2017 at Manila Fame’s October 2016 edition. The bag is inspired by the moth insect, its flap with a wing-like shape and adorned by Lally’s signature accent piece. This time, she uses the Filipino wood kamagong with her original moth design made of 24k gold-plated brass with a cabochon mother-of-pearl. Her bags are made of exotic skin, such as crocodile skin, python skin, and elaphe snakeskin. All bags and adornments are proudly handmade in the Philippines.
If Lally has her bags, sister Trisha has her Treasure Trove inspired by ancient things. “I love old photographs, historical and classic hardbound books, and antique furniture,” Trisha drools. “I am inspired and attracted by antique jewellery that has a story behind it. Lately, I’ve also been getting pieces from designers who are the same old soul as I am, and inspired by the same things that I like. Price points vary from medium to high, since I sell silver dipped in gold and gold pieces.”
From bags to riches, Trisha’s certainly got it all in the bag!
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Vintage Restore Alabang Hills is located at MG-3FL-20 Madison Galeries, 398 Don Jesus Boulevard, Barangay Cupang, Alabang Hills, Muntinlupa City with telephone number 805-8337 and mobile 09055562884. Other branches are located at The Podium Mall, 09154004105 and 631-6177; Jupiter St., Bel-Air Makati, 890-4326 and 09166262967; White Plains, Quezon City, 438-2863 and 09165288165. Also visit www.vintagerestoremanila.com.
