Featured Sad Condition, Ice Blue Dress, 1930s?

Posting a thread on this because @Rufus@frockstarvintage wanted to see pictures, and may be able to help figure out if it is salvageable.

I think this dress is most likely from the 1930s. One side of the fabric is shiny like satin, but textured. The reverse is more like a crepe sort of texture. The fabric is sort of a medium weight... not light weight. The dress is unlined, except for the bodice which is lined with a cream-colored fabric that may have originally been white. (I did not take photos of the reverse of the fabric, nor of the lining. I can add some if needed.) The dress is about size 2 or 4 in today's women's sizes, I estimate.

Problems: The dress spent considerable time on somebody's basement floor and has stains all over it. It also has small holes all over it and a larger hole on one strap.

I mentioned in the other thread that I see no evidence of insects, but gregsglass mentioned that eggs can exist in fabric for a long time and can hatch, and the insects can disappear.

Anyway -- I'd like to know if it's worth trying to have cleaned? I suspect there is nothing to do about the holes and it would no longer fit me anyway. I would not be wearing it so it would only be cleaned to try to inhibit any further damage. Would mothballs help? -- If it would be worth cleaning, how would I go about finding somebody? Maybe a museum could refer me?

 

Moths like silk as well as wool. It is it a dress or beautiful, vintage night wear? 1930s seems right. Very Gosford Park.

 

It's a dress, according to the friend who gave it to me in the early 1980s. She said it belonged to her grandmother, who used to wear it to parties. I think the fabric is too heavy for nightwear. (At least, I'd never wear something with heavy fabric that would drag around my ankles in bed!)

 

Given fabric weight and lined bodice, would certainly think it was an evening gown. Unless it's the work of a well known designer from the period, wouldn't think worth the time/effort/money to even attempt to salvage. Condition just doesn't warrant it.


Debora

 

Thanks, Debora... I haven't noticed any tags in it, but also didn't carefully look. I'll look again.

 

Take it to a dry cleaner who deals with such things. Your local museum might be able to recommend some. I can't see that complete evidence of the basement floor can be obliterated...but ask.

As for the holes, unless you have access to one of those incredible little ladies who does invisible weaving, you are out of luck. (Years ago, when I used to work in the Pan Am building, there were a couple of little ladies in a window in the hall at the top of the stairs, at the Grand Central terminal exit for the Lexington Avenue subway. One of them was kind enough to show me what, and how, she did invisible weaving. To this day, my mind boggles!)

Something is better than nothing, and the color is gorgeous! (Also like that quilt!!)

 

Thanks to @Debora for giving me the idea to look for a label, because I found one! It doesn't identify an original designer, but it's from the Fashion Originators Guild. It looks a lot like the label in this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_Originators_Guild_of_America

And I also found this, so far: https://vintagefashionguild.org/label-resource/fashion-originators-guild/ -- The label in mine looks like the 6th one down, which also is like the one in Wikipedia.

Now I'm intrigued, and will find out more about the Guild. This doesn't mean the dress is valuable, at all, but I might want to at least do a better job of halting further damage.

EDIT: I also just found this article written by faculty members from Iowa State University, less than two hours from here:
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/view...&httpsredir=1&article=1007&context=aeshm_pubs

 

And thank you! Very interesting post. Years ago I asked a dry cleaner about it and they wouldn't touch it. And now I live in small-town Iowa. However, I do know a faculty member in town here who teaches classes about textiles. I might ask her. Unfortunately I think Debora was right that it might not be worth having it cleaned. If it has to be done by a specialist it would cost more than I would be willing to pay, I assume.

 

Hi Fig,
Are you near a major city? I used a school for teaching dry cleaning. The students there took the vestment apart. It contained three different materials, cleaned each one separately and then sewed it back together. That was the Mets restoration centers suggestion. it was around 100 dollars. The vestment was used several times a month for years. It is now over 100 years old and is in fine shape.
greg

 

Not very close, but I visit Chicago a few times a year...

 

If you do decide to have it dry cleaned and some stains remain, perhaps some strategically placed lace appliques would cover the holes and residual stains.
The dress reminds me of 1930's Hollywood glam...Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford...

 

Carole Lombard... Etc. Yes -- me, too. I'm a huge fan of that era of film, too.

 

So am I. I like the style and they had to rely much more on the spoken word, so the lines were often brilliant.

 

It might be early rayon and it's worth a burn test. That fluffiness is typical of rayon.

I'd actually try washing it. Don't forget that when this was made, dry cleaning was far less common. My own brilliant dry cleaner often suggests that gentle hand washing is far more sympathetic to delicates. She uses Fairy liquid!

 

Mine is sewn into a seam at the bottom of the bodice lining. And the left and right edges are slightly turned under. If there is a number it is hidden beneath the turned-under part. I gently tried to lift the edge but couldn't see the edges of a number.

 

If anybody hand washes it, it won't be me! I'm not good at hand washing in the first place. Maybe I could get a dry cleaner to hand wash it. I think the fabric would be even heavier and the dress would be hard to manipulate when wet. There is a lot of fabric, since the skirt fans out. The more I think about it, I could ask the professor I know if she has any recommendations. Because the university is on summer break she might be out of town. But I can write to her.

I'd also still like to hear from @Rufus@frockstarvintage !

 

@Ownedbybear I think it's rayon also, and worth saving.

These pieces are harder and harder to find in any condition and while it will take effort it's certainly worth trying. I've revived worse looking frocks and while I have no experience reweaving holes, strategically placed lace, beading, or other appropriate trimming could/would solve that issue as @Sandra mentioned .

@Figtree3 I would be happy to work on this for you at no charge - if you'd like to ship it over, I'll at least stabilize it so that further deterioration is halted. Maybe you could then hang it on a nice hanger on a wall or closet door - I have a friend who does that with her vintage & it looks great.
Just message me if you'd like.

 

The Met Museum has a large fashion collection. The collection isn't just high end designers. They may even have section on the Originators Guild. You can search the collection online. I was able to identify a dress that I had through their collection, it was a Claire McCardell. This is the link to her collection but it should lead you to the link for other designers in the collection.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/colle...elevance&sortOrder=asc&perPage=100&pageSize=0