What Are “Sustainable” Wedding Gown Fabrics?

In effect, “sustainable” means minimal damage to the environment. Organically-grown fibers such as silk, cotton, hemp, ramie, and flax qualify as “green” or “sustainable” fabrics because they are made from plants or silk worms that can be grown and harvested again and again. Many of you know these fabrics and have worn things made them, but to be truly “sustainable” they should be organizally grown without the use of pesticides and fertilizers.

Some newer sustainable fabric names are coir, pina, and ingeo. These are fabrics made from, respectively, cocoanut, pineapple, and corn plants. Lyocell is yet another one that is made from wood pulp. The wood pulp comes from fast-growing trees in managed forests and is processed with recycled chemicals. Fabric can also be made from soy and bamboo plants.

All of these newer sustainable fabrics can be wetcleaned but will fare best if handcleaned to reduce the mechanical action involved in cleaning them. However, if a gown is silk, it is usually best to dry clean it.

Many designers now offer gowns made from sustainable fabrics. For example, Adele Wechsler offers an Eco Collection in addition to her other designs. Other designers such as Gwendolyn Gleason Couture do the same, and you can find a range of green gown offerings at SmartBrideBoutique.com. For help in planning an entirely green wedding go to GreenBrideGuide.com. You’ll find many, many vendors offering green services there.

And the members of our Association of Wedding Gown Specialists offer green gown presrevations. You can read about our partnership with Carbonfund.org at http://www.WeddingGownSpecialists.com/zero-carbon-weddings.htm

I Had My $9,000 Wedding Gown Cleaned, and It Looks All Wrinkled. What Should I Do?

True story.  A recent bride called this morning because she found a care label inside her gown with our number in it.  She took her $9,000 Ines di Santo wedding gown to her local dry cleaner, and now ”it looks all wrinkled.”  Unfortunately I hear the same story all too often, and it is usually because some cleaner who is not familiar with designer gowns has decided to wash the gown in water.  Once the gown’s finish has been damaged in that way, the look of the gown can sometimes be improved by a Specialist, but it will never look as beautiful as it once did.  Heartbreaking!

Even if  the cost of your wedding gown is only a few hundred dollars, why risk its beauty by taking it just anywhere to be cleaned?  You wouldn’t take a car you really cared about to the local gas station for repairs, and choosing the right person to care for your gown is  important.  Begin by looking at the label in your wedding gown.  You will find that many designers use our Association’s care labels and recommend brides bring their gowns to one of our Specialists.   My post “True or False: Five Myths about Wedding Cleaning and Preservation”  will also help you understand the instructions on the care label.

Then you should ask lots of questions  before trusting your gown to anyone.  You can find a list of the kinds of questions you should ask http://www.weddinggownspecialists.com/bridalgowncaretips.htm.   And if you are not happy with the answers to your questions, keep looking until you are.   It is worth taking the extra time so that your gown, too, will have a happy ever-after!

Six Things that Can Spoil Your Wedding Day

1.  Drooping bustle:  Whether your bridesmaids simply cannot figure out how to fasten your bustle or your gown is very heavy or someone just plain steps on your train, you will wish you had asked for extra hooks or buttons to keep your gown from dragging on the ground.  Plan ahead, and attach several safety pins to the lining near the hem of your gown so they will be there when you need them.  You can find other tips for emergency gown care at http://www.weddinggownspecialists.com/emergencygowncare.htm.

 

 

2.  Flowers that hide your gown:  If you are going to carry a large bouquet, practice holding your flowers low.  If you hold them too high, they will hide your gown when you are walking down the aisle, and you will see more flowers than gown when you look at your video and your photographs.

 

 

3.  Veils and hairstyles that hide your face:  Make sure your veil frames your face—not hides it after you lift your blusher.  And remember not to obscure the right side of your face with your hair.  That’s the side next to the groom—the side everyone wants to see when you are at the altar.

 

 

4.  Relatives taking photographs:  Uncle Charlie may be a great guy, but he is not trained to stay out of the way so that others can see you when you exchange your vows.  And it is also not fair to relatives who want to be part of the celebration to make them spend the day behind a camera with one eye closed.  Let a professional capture all those special moments and share them afterward with your family.

 

 

5. Unplanned schedule of events:  Avoid leaving hours and hours between the ceremony and the reception if you possibly can or some guests may party so hard they do not make it to the reception.  If there must be a long delay, offer guests some options such as a lounge in the reception venue or, for out-of-town guests, a list of nearby things to do.  On the other hand, do not forget to allow enough time for photographs.  No one really minds if you miss hors d’ouevres with your guests, but a dinner that gets overcooked because you are still taking pictures is a disaster.  If you are having your ceremony and reception at the same location, you might even consider posing for your formal photographs before the ceremony, and then you will have extra time to spend with your guests.

 

 

6.  Kids at weddings:  If you plan to have a very young ring bearer or flower girl, be sure each gets to bed early the night before the wedding.  Designate someone other than mom or dad (if they are in the wedding party), to watch them during the ceremony.  For children at the ceremony, whether they are in the wedding party or not, things such as snacks in a zip-lock bag that opens quietly, clear (in case of spills) juice in boxes, and a coloring book with washable markers will hold their interest.  At the reception, serving children’s meals promptly and having books and crayons on hand will help keep them at the table. 

 

One more tip:  After all your thoughtful planning, try to relax and enjoy each moment.  It will all go by much too quickly, and your friends and family are there to share the joy of your special day—not to complain about missteps along the way.

Adapted from “The Seven Biggest Wedding Mistakes” by Rod Jovanelly at A Touch of Color Photography in Connecticut

Top Ten Things for Preserving Your Gown

When you chose your wedding gown, you could see it was the perfect dress for you, and everyone agreed your gown was just right for you.  But after the wedding, how can you find the care that is just right for your gown so it, too, can have a happy ever-after?   

 

1. Look for someone who specializes in cleaning and preserving wedding gowns.  Most cleaners do not do their own work when it comes to wedding gowns.  They send them off to someone else, often someone else in another state.  Not good.  You want a cleaner who takes responsibility for your gown.

 

2.  Ask if the cleaner has been specially trained and if the cleaner is a member of an Association.  The last thing you need is someone who is going to practice or “learn on the job” with your beautiful gown. 

 

3.  How many years has the cleaner been in business?  The cleaner may be very well trained, but years of experience count.  The longer he or she has been in business the more likely he or she has seen a gown similar to yours and knows how to handle a gown as special as yours.

 

4.  What kind of solvent is the cleaner going to use on your gown?  A specialist knows that some solvents are more gentle than others and will use the solvent best for your gown’s fragile beading and other decorations.

 

5.  Does the cleaner handle solvents responsibly?  Some cleaners can even offer you carbon-free gown cleaning and preservation when you make a donation to a non-profit organization that provides carbon offsets and climate solutions.  See www.WeddingGownSpecialists.com/zero-carbon-weddings.htm.

 

6.  What kind of guarantee does the cleaner provide?  Today or twenty-five years from today, who is going to honor the guarantee that your gown will still be in pristine, ready-to-wear condition?

 

7.  Will completely acid-free tissue be used to buffer the folds of your gown when it is packed and will the container be completely acid-free?  Do not settle for pH-neutral materials that can re-acidify over time—especially if the gown is stored in a damp area where humidity can dissolve the neutralizer in the packing materials.

 

8.  Does the container allow the fabric to “breathe” and allow the fibers to expand and contract with changes in heat and humidity?  Shrink-wrapping can trap moisture that may cause mildew and create an electrostatic charge that sets creases which no amount of pressing can remove.

 

 9.  What precautions does the cleaner take to protect the gown during the cleaning process?  During the packing process?  Prongs, for example, around the beads on your gown can snag the fabric during the cleaning process.  When it is packed, puffy bows or flowers should be stuffed or protected with a nest of tissue.  Bust pads should also be removed because they emit off-gases that will yellow your gown.

 

10.  Is the gown going to be clean?  Will the cleaner remove all stains and “floor dirt” around the hem of the gown.?  Does the cleaner guard against latent stains?   Stains such as wine or ginger ale contain sugar and can dry clear.  Over the years the sugar in latent stains caramelizes and turns brown.  Such stains do not automatically dissolve during the cleaning process and require special care. 

 

Believe it or not, cleaning is the most important part of the preservation process so look for a cleaner who will allow you to personally inspect your gown.  And then look carefully to be sure your gown will be as lovely years from now as it was the day you wore that very special gown.   

 

Where Should I Go to Have My Wedding Gown Cleaned and Preserved?

Years ago when I first began cleaning and preserving family gowns, I thought stories of lost gowns were just another urban myth, but I have talked personally with many victimized brides and I know first hand that you cannot be too careful when choosing a preservationist to care for your gown.

 

 

 

 

Bag versus Box: What Is Best for Your Gown?

Plastic bags are the worst possible choice for your gown because plastic emits fumes that can yellow your gown. If you have a bag made from muslin or tyvek, there will be no harmful fumes, but bags are not a particularly good choice for long-term storage. Hanging for long periods of time can distort the shape of your gown even if it is hanging from the ribbon loops attached to inside seams. All fabric, especially lace, will stretch if you hang it, and who needs a big bubble where the bustle should be or a saggy-looking bodice?

Having a professional clean and pack your gown in an acid-free wedding chest is a much better option. A professional will pack your gown so that it maintains it shape perfectly with a minimum of folds and creases, and the wedding chest takes up a lot less room in your closet than a big bouffant gown bag. Wedding chests also protect your gown from sharp objects that can slice into your dress. They are also a much more effective barrier against insects and mice than bags. A bride once came to me in tears because mice got into her bag before the wedding, shredded her train to make a nest, and left her a present of lots of little black stuff!

No museums that I know use bags to store textiles, and that, too, should tell you something–an acid-free wedding chest is a better choice than any bag.

How Can I Find a “Green” Gown Preservation?

That’s a good question, but there is no quick and easy answer. There are three components in a good gown preservation: a clean dress, archival-quality storage materials, and the environment in which the container is stored.

Most fabric conservators recommend a container made of completely acid-free paperboard and tissue for packing that is also completely acid-free. In the United States, the government imposes a fee on paperboard manufacturers to cover the proper disposal of the acid removed during the manufacturing process so you need not worry about environmental pollution as far as the wedding chest is concerned.

And the planet will probably keep on rolling just fine no matter where you keep the wedding chest. However, if you want your gown to continue to look its best, you should not store it where there are extremes of heat and humidity such as the attic where it is just too hot for the comfort of the fibers in your gown. Basements are too damp, and it is one of those well-known universal laws that if a pipe breaks in the basement, the water will find your gown.

Believe it or not, the most important factor in a successful preservation is a clean dress, and cleaning your gown is exactly the point at which you might think about a “green” preservation. Some of the stains on your gown are water-soluble (wine or coffee), some are not (lipstick or car-door grease), and some are complex stains (chocolate or salad dressing) that require both wetside and dryside chemicals to dissolve them. Once a cleaner has dissolved the stains with the proper chemicals, the gown goes into a machine containing a solvent that rinses out all of the chemicals used to dissolve the stains.

Some brides think they should ask the cleaner if he or she uses an “organic” solvent when the gown is cleaned, but technically almost all of the solvents currently used by cleaners can be classified as organic because they contain carbon in some form—although some contain more carbon than others. The two solvents currently thought to be most friendly to the environment are carbon dioxide and silicone dioxide, but the jury, the Environmental Protection Agency, has not yet ruled decisively.

You might think water would be the “greenest” solvent. Unfortunately, no bride would be very happy with a silk gown that has been processed entirely in water because water can cause shrinkage. Sophisticated tensioning equipment can be used to offset shrinkage, but water dissolves the sizing that manufacturers add to fabric to give it extra body and sheen. Cleaners call this “hand,” and water causes a significant loss of hand. On the whole, silk just does not do well in water, and silk that has been processed in water often looks much like a piece of aluminum foil that has been wadded up and then smoothed out again—limp and full of very fine wrinkles.

Even if your gown is not silk, you should remember that solvents other than water are recycled. You could argue that the non-water cleaning solvents are more environmentally friendly than water because water is thrown out after each use. To date there are no commercial cleaning machines that recycle water. And the chemicals used to dissolve stains that are not water-soluble go down the drain with the water. Some states prohibit the use of certain kinds of chemicals, but the rest can end up in the ground and cause exactly the kind of problem you are trying to avoid when you ask for a “green” preservation.

So what should you look for? How can you be a friend to your gown and to the environment?

Hal Hornung, editor of National Clothesline, which is probably the periodical best known and most widely read by cleaners, has often written on the responsible use of chemicals, and I asked him to comment on what brides should do if they are looking for a “green” preservation. Hal wrote:

“Of course there are things beyond the cleaning solvent that will factor into a drycleaner’s environmental friendliness—energy efficiency and recycling programs, for example. . . . If I were a customer looking for an environmentally friendly cleaner, I would ask the cleaner specifically what he does that makes him “green.” Many cleaners have given it much thought and can provide a laundry list of practices they have in place to conserve and protect the environment. If all a cleaner can say is that he uses Brand A cleaning solvent, which is way better than old Brand X, I would go down the street to the next cleaner.”

Bottom line: when choosing a preservationist you should ask lots of questions to find the cleaner who is best for your gown and best for the environment. You can find some of the important questions at www.WeddingGownSpecialists.com/BridalGownCareTips.htm. Then look for a responsible operator who does his or her best to conserve energy and participate in recycling programs. As Hal wrote, “A poor operator can foul the environment with just about any solvent, while a good operator can be environmentally pristine using just about anything.

Does the Container Matter When You Preserve Your Gown

Yes, it does. I get calls every two or three weeks from brides who are worried because their gowns seem to be yellowing. Almost always the problem is the container. When the container is not completely acid-free, the acidic content will yellow your gown. Of course, you should ask the service that cleans and preserves your gown whether they are using an acid-free container before you trust them with your gown. However, you can also see with your own eyes if it is not acid-free because if any parts of the box or the bust form put into your gown to give it shape are brown, it is not acid-free.

Unless your container is one of the grey-colored boxes especially made for fabric conservation by a company such as University Products or Archivart, all parts of the box or bust form should be white. If they are not, it is not an archival-quality box. Some services use containers that are white on the outside and on the inside of the box, but the interior structure between the layers of paper is brown. This interior structure give the box its strength, and it is made up of little ridges which are called “flutes. If the flutes are brown, the box is not completely acid-free. Eventually the acid will migrate through the white paper coating the inside of the box and discolor the gown.

Some services offer pH-neutral containers. Such containers are not good either because they can re-acidify. Trees contain lignin, an acid naturally found in trees. Then manufacturers add still more acid during the paper-making process. When making pH-neutral paper, they add a neutralizer, but the neutralizer is soluble in water. If the container gets wet or is stored in a damp area, the neutralizer dissolves, and the paper re-acidifies.

When manufacturers make acid-free paper, all acid is completely removed, and the paper cannot re-acifify.

Windows, too, can cause problems. If there is a window in the container and it is not made from a neutral plastic such as polypropylene, it will give off gases that also can yellow the gown.

Be sure the service you trust with your gown uses archival-quality materials that are acid-free. Then avoid storing the container where there are extremes of heat such as the attic or humidity such as the basement. Basements are also dangerous because it is a law: if a pipe breaks, the water will find your gown.

There is hope for gowns that yellow, but you will need to find a specialist who can remove it safely because ordinary drycleaning very rarely removes the discoloration.

Will My Gown Be Okay If I Have It Cleaned Before the Wedding?

If you bought a sample from the bridal shop or you bought your gown on E-Bay or from a consignment shop, chances are that your gown looks a little shopworn, but strangely enough people will tell you NOT to have your gown cleaned! I see this all the time on wedding websites: “Don’t have your gown cleaned before the wedding because the cleaner will ruin it.”

And I just wish I could post, too, because I would write that if you pick the right cleaner your gown will look better than ever after it is cleaned. There is a list of questions to ask the cleaner at http://www.weddinggownspecialists.com/bridalgowncaretips.htm, but the main thing is to ask the cleaner if they do the work themselves and how many gowns they clean. Someone who cleans gowns all the time will recognize the name of your gown’s manufacturer as well as the fabric in your gown and will know exactly what solvents can safely be used.

If you want help finding the right person, you can call me at 800-501-5005

What About Cleaning My Gown After the Wedding?

Brides often call me to ask how soon after the wedding the gown has to be cleaned. Of course, the sooner you have it cleaned, the easier it is for the cleaner to remove successfully all the cake and lipstick and floor dirt you picked up the day of the wedding.

BUT are you really ready to give up your gown? You might want to enjoy it some more and just look at it hanging over the closet door or resting on the bed in your mom’s guest room–or even try it on once in a while to remember how much fun it was to wear it on your wedding day. Every bride I have ever met wishes the day had not gone by so fast and that she could wear her gown again.

The truth is, unless your gown is silk and splattered with red wine or splotched with mud, it’s okay to delay the trip to the cleaners for a couple of weeks. It’s not such a good idea to wait as long as a year or more, but some brides just cannot bring themselves to leave their gowns with a stranger. For some brides, it is almost the same kind of “separation anxiety” that mothers experience when the first child goes off to nursery school or kindergarten.

If you are that kind of bride, research a few cleaners, get references, and when you make your choice, get a definite date for an appointment to inspect your gown after it is clean. You will feel better if you have a scheduled appointment and know exactly when you are going to see your gown again!