Looking ahead:

Preserving the Dress of Your Dreams

By Rachel Coker

Plan ahead, shop wisely and act fast to keep your gown in top shape.

You can give it to a friend or relative who's getting married soon. You can try to sell it. You can donate it to charity. Some women even have their dresses made into christening gowns to be worn by their children.

But if you're in love with your dress, or of a more sentimental mindset, you may wish to preserve the gown. The idea here, of course, is that you'll have it as a memento of your wedding and may one day see your daughter walk down the aisle wearing it.

The choice is yours. But make up your mind soon after the wedding. Ideally, it's best to begin cleaning and preserving a gown within the first month. The longer you wait, the more difficult any stain becomes to remove.

Experts agree: The sooner a gown is cleaned, the more likely it is that it can be properly restored. "In the best of all worlds I want to see the dress 10 minutes after it's worn," says Jonathan Scheer, president and chief executive officer of J. Scheer and Co., a New York firm that specializes in textile conservation. "But I know that I won't."

He notes that many stains are invisible. Perspiration and alcohol, for example, won't be as noticeable as a blotch of red wine. But they, too can damage a gown in the long run. Scheer says a month is a reasonable time frame to arrange for preservation. And even six months or a year later, work can be done if the dress isn't badly stained.

But if a women calls years later, it's often too late to remove stains completely, or the gown has been damaged by poor storage conditions.

So, if you decide you want to hang on to your gown, you should try to research your options before the big day arrives. But get out that checkbook. As with many aspects of the wedding industry, gown preservation doesn't come cheap.

The cost of gown preservation can range from about $400 to over $700, though the latter price is likely to include shipping and a warranty. At the high end, some services offer a sealed "archival" box to store your gown, though this may keep you from inspecting the cleaning and pressing work until many years later. Some vintage clothing authorities suggest, instead, that you place your gown (after having it properly and professionally cleaned) into a lidded banker's box with non-bleached cotton muslin and polyester batting.  Such storage allows regular re-folding (to avoid permanent damage from creases) and inspection of your gown.

It's possible to clean some gowns at home, although the process can be time-consuming and awkward, if the dress has a full skirt or long train.

Alan Fields, co-author of "Bridal Bargains" and "Cyber Bride," says brides should think long and hard before paying to preserve a dress. "We're not really big fans of investing the money in gown preservation," Fields says.

For starters, he says, consider the initial cost of the gown. Does it make sense to spend hundreds preserving a dress that cost $600 to begin with?

Unlike a generation ago, dresses now are generally imported from Asia and are made of polyester rather than silk. "They're just not the family heirloom-type garment anymore," Fields says.

Finally, he notes, brides should consider the way fashions change. "There's always a real question mark as to whether anyone is going to wear the dress in 20 years," he says.

Shiner disagrees. "Brides have two loves in their life when they're planning a wedding," he says. "One is their husband and the other is the bridal gown. And not necessarily in that order."

How to Hand-Clean Your Gown at Home

It's possible to preserve your gown on a shoestring budget. Brides who choose to tackle the task should be willing to roll up their sleeves and invest time and effort in hand cleaning.

"I don't mean throwing it into the washing machine and hoping for the best," says Jonathan Scheer, of New York-based textile preservationist J. Scheer and Co.

First, determine what fabrics were used in the dress. Read the care label inside the gown or ask the salon where the gown was purchased.

Polyester is a good candidate for an at-home wet cleaning, Scheer says. It's sturdy and has a low shrinkage rate. Silk, which comes in several varieties, is often washable, too. Acetate and many rayons will shrink and distort in water.

Try cutting a small square of fabric from inside the hem for a pre-cleaning test. It's OK to wash the gown if a piece of fabric immersed in water and air-dried returns to normal.

Scheer recommends cleaning with a clear, unscented dishwashing or soft soap that contains sodium lauryl sulfate.

Fill a bathtub with warm water and a 5 percent solution of the cleaner.

Next, pre-treat water-soluble stains, such as food, with a towel dipped in the cleaning solution. Oily stains, such as lipstick, should be treated with a stronger solution, perhaps 10 percent.

Red wine stains should be pre-treated with white vinegar. Rinse and repeat until the stains are dissolved.

Next, it's time to immerse the dress in the tub. Clean both sides of the gown with a rolled towel or sea sponge, which should take about 10 minutes in all.

Drain the tub and rinse the dress with distilled water until there's no soap remaining. Between five and 10 gallons of water will be needed.

When that's done, put the gown on a flat surface. A floor with a white sheet laid out will work. Put a white towel on top of the dress and start to roll it up. That will press water into the towel without placing undue stress on the fabric. Repeat that process with both sides of the gown until it's only damp, not wet.

Leave the dress on the flat surface, put a house fan on nearby so it blows back and forth across the gown and let the dress air dry.
Now the dress is ready to be stored.

Wrap it in 10 yards of washed undyed, unbleached muslin. Put the dress on top of the muslin, fold the muslin over the gown and fold the gown in half.

Next, find a dark place where it can be stored flat in an environment that's not too humid or dry. Under a bed or on a bedroom shelf would be ideal. Consider the attic and basement off-limits.