Annoyingly noisy handbag

December 27, 2006 12:14 PM

NoisyStrapFilter: I splurged on an expensive handbag last week and am now surprised to find that the leather and chain shoulder strap is surprisingly noisy. What can I do to make the strap quieter ?

The store has been unhelpful, and claims that they contacted the designer who has no other suggestions either. I'd be happy to go to a shoemaker to replace the chain with a leather piece, but I suspect the fairly shiny red leather will be difficult to match. I'd have the chain pieces removed, but then the strap would be too short...

Other ideas I've considered (perhaps the hivemind can elaborate on these ?): (a) Is there some kind of spray that will make the links clink together less ? (b) Is there some way to convince the designer to sell me a piece of matching leather or another strap for the same bag (so I could combine the leather parts of the two into one quiet strap) (c) Could something be threaded through the chain to diminish the noise ? (it would need to be neat and elegant as this is my work handbag)....

posted by AuntLisa to clothing, beauty, & fashion (6 comments total)

Shoot, I was going to say saddle soap the leather, but anything you do to try to solve the problem on your own will make the bag unreturnable! If it's an expensive bag (and they all are these days) I'd expect it to be just right. Noisy is distracting and that's a design flaw -- the store and/or designer should own up to it and refund/repair/replace.
posted by thinkpiece at 12:55 PM on December 27, 2006

Depending on the width of the chain links, you could lace some sort of material through them. (I'm thinking something like a shoe lace, bonus points if you can find one that matches the purse and thus looks intentional.) The idea being that it will act as a buffer and keep the links from jingling.
posted by quin at 1:11 PM on December 27, 2006

Ah, I should have read the [MI] more closely, you thought of that. But yeah, I have successfully dampened the noise of a chain by lacing some fabric through it. In my case, I used some rawhide leather lacing, but any thick soft material would have worked.
posted by quin at 1:13 PM on December 27, 2006

Re: quin's idea, maybe matching ribbon instead of a shoelace? I vaguely recall a Sex and the City-borne fad where women tied coordinating pocket scarfs around the straps of their handbags a few years ago.
posted by Brittanie at 3:39 PM on December 27, 2006

Super glue the links of the chain together to make one solid piece of chain.
posted by JujuB at 9:54 PM on December 27, 2006

satin or velvet ribbon might look nice, if you get tired of the rawhide.
posted by twistofrhyme at 11:05 AM on December 28, 2006