Can this suede jacket be saved?

May 25, 2013 6:20 AM

I have a tan suede blazer which has been hanging in a closet for some time. I took it out the other day and it now has large areas of orange discolouration all over it. It's both front and back so I'm guessing it isn't from contact with coloured clothing or it wouldn't be on both sides. Is there anything I can do to fix this?

I assume the nature of the stains is a moot point since I doubt anything can be done to get the discolouration out of the jacket... I put it in the discard pile... I neatly and lovingly folded it inside out for the discard pile.

My beautiful tan blazer. I love it, but the last time I had a suede item cleaned it cost £45 and I'm not prepared to do that again. Are there any DIY methods for saving it?

posted by tel3path to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (9 answers total)

Timberland sell a dry-clean kit for suede shoes. £8. There are other home-dry-clean products. Good luck.
posted by Leon at 7:16 AM on May 25, 2013

This is almost certainly bleaching of some kind, and thinking that it must mean that there are some decidedly unusual vapors wafting about in that closet, I looked over your previous questions and found this:

I learned today that it's dangerous to store combustibles such as clothing near the fuse box or electrical intake. I keep my off-season wardrobe under the stairs, and the electrical intake/fuse box is also under the stairs.

Ozone is a very powerful bleaching agent and is generated in quantity by electrical sparking in air.

However, there aren't supposed to be any sparks in a fusebox unless a breaker trips, and the presence of a quantity of ozone sufficient to bleach your blazer like that could be an indicator of serious problems in that fusebox, which needs to be assessed by a qualified electrician sooner rather than later.
posted by jamjam at 11:13 AM on May 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I haven't been keeping it under the stairs, as I don't fold leather items for storage. This is in a closet with everything else.

Also, it's not bleached - it's turned orange in various places.
posted by tel3path at 12:58 PM on May 25, 2013

Fair enough, but before you definitely conclude it's not bleached, try a Q-tip moistened with bleach on an inner, invisible spot and see what happens.
posted by jamjam at 1:12 PM on May 25, 2013

Could it be mould? I lost a suede jacket to mould when I left it in a wardrobe for too long in humid conditions, although the mould was black (but some kinds of mould are orange). If it has large areas of mould on it there's probably nothing you can do other than isolate it from other clothing and make sure nothing else is mouldy.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 1:54 PM on May 25, 2013

I would go with the mould theory. It is of no value to you as it is. I would try a proprietry suede cleaner and a brush. I doudt it will remove the stain. I would the use a laether n suede dye close to the original colour all over.
posted by BenPens at 3:21 AM on May 26, 2013

Response by poster: Okay. I don't know what to say about the mould theory since none of the items close to it in the closet has any mould.

I also think that dyeing it won't help since the orange discoloration is darker than the original tan color.

Guess I'm out of luck.
posted by tel3path at 7:01 AM on May 26, 2013

Depending on how much you loved it, you could try a suede cleaner like this

You might be able to dye the whole thing a darker color (brown, navy) if you like the shape and want to save it
posted by rmless at 3:01 PM on May 26, 2013

Response by poster: To my sorrow, I have decided to let the jacket go.

It was the light brown colour that I liked so much about it, and I've never successfully DIY-cleaned suede before, and professional cleaning would be out of my price range, and I don't know what caused the discoloration in the first place, and and and.

I'm giving it to the thrift store, since whatever it is has not spread to nearby garments, and they'll know whether to try to resell it or discard it.

Thanks for all your suggestions, folks. If the hivemind doesn't have the answer, no-one does, that is something I can count on in life.
posted by tel3path at 1:41 PM on June 29, 2013