Dress Preservation Help

[Elmorton]

When she was visiting this weekend, my mom brought my wedding dress which she had preserved. It''s in a huuuuge box, clearly made for big, puffy dresses. My dress was tea-length chiffon though and is swimming in the box AND the box is too big to store it anywhere but the basement (my hope had been to put it under the bed, but the box is about a foot tall, 2 ft wide).

I know my mom paid a pretty decent sum to have the dress preserved, so I don''t want to rip into the box and do anything stupid to ruin the preservation, BUT I really want to get a new box that my dress actually fits in and that I can store. The box it''s in IS pretty cool - it has a velcro top, and when you open the box, you see the dress under cellophane.

Any suggestions as to what I should do? What kind of box I could get? Where I could get said box?

 

[Dreamer_D]

LOL!

I have no good advice because my wedding dress is hanging on the wall from a nail in our spare room after a whole year! I just wanted to comment that it sounds like a really nice box and if you can find a place for it, then it will keep your dress pristine for your kids to wear as they have teas parties one day!

DD

 

[Amandine]

Eek! Take your poor, beloved dress out of that box! Cellophane is evil, it slowly degrades and release fumes that can cause a lot of problems with your dress. Find yourself some archival tissue and an appropriately sized archival box. I would also recommend archival muslin to wrap the dress in, then the tissue, and place in box. Archival muslin is hard to find, but the tissue and box shouldn''t be too difficult. You can do this without the muslin, too. Now, this may sound funny, but if you really want to protect your gown, use gloves when handling it. The oils from your skin can get on the dress and cause discoloration later. Under your bed a great spot to keep it, or in a closet. Avoid heat and humidity.

Can you tell I have had some training in this?

 

[Elmorton]

Dreamer, first of all, I love your new "ice" shot in your av. too cute! The box does look nice, but it''s seriously huge...one of my girlfriends used the same place for her dress, and we refer to the boxes as our dress'' coffins - kinda sad, actually.

Amandine - YES it sounds like you have experience!! It does have archival tissue in there, but the cellophane is kinda freaking me out now. Do you know somewhere where I could find archival boxes?? Also...does that mean that um, putting the dress on again is out of the question? (Yes, I''m crazy - but part of me just wants to play dress-up just one more time). Part of the reason I kinda don''t like the box is that my dress is all taped in. It drives me crazy that I can''t touch it...but I do want to keep it nice - I doubt a future child would want to wear it, but it makes me so sad that my mom''s dress is so yellowed (it hangs in the back of the closet - same place for about 30 years).

 

[Amandine]

Here, hope this little article from the Container Store helps. They sell the boxes, too.

As for trying on your dress, yes, you can. BUT...keep in mind that part of what can destroy it eventually is those oils on your skin. SO, if you really want to, then maybe after a shower?

 

[Elmorton]

Thanks for the article! I think I did things (mostly) right last night, then! Basically, the box the dress was in was like a box within a box, so I took that top part out (the part with the cellophane window), and then fitted the top of the box over the open box (now it just looks like a normal box). But...before doing that, I totally tried on my dress again!! Good news - it still fits and I still love it Having it on though did make me realize that seriously, my daughter is never going to wear my dress - I have no idea why I''m preserving it except that I just liked my dress. Oh well. My veil on the other hand...forgot how pretty it was!! Hopefully that can stay an heirloom. Anyway, when I replaced the dress in the now smaller box, I took the tissue and actually wrapped my dress in it and then wrapped the veil separately (the article you posted said that the dress can damage the veil if stored together - which they had done, grr!). Wrapping up my dress and then closing up the box was sortof a cathartic experience! It was so weird to peer into the first box and see my dress with no body in it - now it''s actually stored away and safe AND fits nicely in my closet instead of the basement. Thanks for the help!!