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

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.   

 

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.