Leather expert slices open a $1,100 Gucci mini bag to see if it's worth the price tag (2024)

2023-01-20T18:00:00Z

Description

I look at three things. First is leather. Like, what type of leather selection was employed in this design? How good of a leather is required for this kind of finish they employed here? Two is the craftsmanship, the sophistication of the design. And finally, the third one is overall performance value compared to that price point. If you're looking for just leather, you don't care about the status, it might be too much for you. And if you are OK, you want to buy the status that comes with the brand, then it's totally worth it for you. So that's my intention of helping people with this information.

This buckle is attached to it very strongly through these metal connections, and it is really hard for me to take it off, so I am cutting the buckle off from the leather to take it out of my way so we can start inspecting the leather. Gucci bag has about two, three layers of supporting materials inside. The leather is backened by this fabric, which will prevent the stretching of the leather over time, so it's going to make sure the form stays intact in years to come. There are some thicker supports almost resembling cardboard kind of materials. Sometimes leather dust is employed in those support materials as well to increase the structure rigidity of the bag.

This Dionysus bag was very rigid and structured bag. It looked, felt, and stayed very solid in its given form, and it was very well executed. Super-good craftsmanship, very good design, and all that. Internal pieces was carefully planned, selected, and the stitching lines, even the count of the stitches, quality seems really good. I think the shop making this bag, definitely a top-notch artisan shop.

Now I'm applying some acetone, because it's a very common household dissolver, and I'm using a sharp knife, or a little leather blade, to remove the finish. It's technically like scraping off a little bit of a cream from top of the leather, and there is no certain depth. I go until I see the leather grain. By leather grain, I'm talking about the pores of the hair cells, actually. You will start seeing the hair cells beyond the finish once those plasticky, gooey substance is gone. And that gooey substance, it's just liquidized plastic. The finish on it, that pattern-embossed finish, is a thick, heavy finish.

Underneath, when I open the bags, I know this is good leather after touching it, seeing the backside of it, and all that. This is subjective. The leathers I love has this minimal finish where I see the natural grain of leather, because leather is a non-standard natural material, just like, you know, everybody's skin looks slightly different. Truly minimally finished artisan leathers make unique pieces. No two leather craft will look alike. That's what I appreciate in leather, but I know this is really almost impossible for big brands to go with due to their size. They need some form of standardization.

Now I'm going to cut really thin strips so I can burn it and understand from the burning characteristics what kind of tanning was involved in this leather. Leather can be tanned different ways. They all burn slightly differently, and they leave different residues, ashes. Chrome-tanned leather burns really slow. You have to force it to keep burning. And then the ashes will usually show some form of green residue, which is the color of the chrome tanning agent. 90%, in my estimate, of leathers are chrome-tanned, because it's convenient, easy, quick, and very durable, and everybody uses it, but it's a heavy metal, and it's more polluting in the tanning technique.

Metal-free leather is a fairly new tanning technique, I would say only becoming more popular in the couple decades. Gucci bag has a metal-free claim. And grain, sometimes they call it grain or pebbled calfskin leather, and this is the little pebbles they refer to when they're talking about that, which is a standardization finish. So the leather they used here is showing me no signs of chrome, which is confirming their claim of metal-free tanning, and that's as much as I can tell from this test. It doesn't tell too much of the details when you're talking about metal-free tanning, but at least we don't see signs of chrome.

In my opinion, this bag can be made about $115 in leather and labor, material cost. It was definitely well made. It's beautiful leather employed here. The quality of craftsmanship and accessories is exceptional. Of course, it's a big brand. It's Gucci. There is a premium, definitely, you're paying in the price of $1,100, because eventually, regardless how good of a leather you use, price doesn't go above a certain point because of the leather. Then, when you start seeing astronomical prices, you know that it's not about the leather anymore, it's about the status that comes with the price. That's the whole point of my question of, is it worth it or not? Leather is not cheap, but it's never astronomically expensive.

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