Plan to save your dress? Take care of it now

After Barbara Hart's wedding in 1989, her mom took care of the dirty work.

She had Hart's 1950s lace gown repaired, cleaned and preserved, boxed up and ready for another bride in the family. It was late last year, though, when Hart's niece, who was considering wearing the gown, opened the box, only to learn it held the wrong dress.

"It was very upsetting to me. It's all this connection to your younger life. A connection to my mother, to a moment in time," said Hart, 50, of Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., whose mother has since died. "You're just losing the thread of this connection."

So much thought goes into selecting a wedding gown, but once the celebration is over, the dress begins to fade into the background. Experts say that right after the wedding, however, is precisely the time to make sure everything is in order so your dress is pristine if you want to wear it again for an anniversary, have it made into a christening gown, or hand it down to a daughter or other loved one.

Hart doesn't know what instructions her mother was given about opening or not opening the box, and the dry cleaner that worked on it has since changed hands.

"My advice is that people should open the box and inspect it, and make sure they have the right dress and it's properly done at the time," said Hart, a lawyer.

Mix-ups are more common than you might think. Hart said an acquaintance of hers heard her story and opened her box to find a different dress, too.

"The problem of the wrong dress is endemic in the industry," said Sally Conant, executive director of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists. "Ask to inspect your dress."

A preservationist for 20 years, Conant said the wrong-dress-in-the-box scenario happens less frequently now because most preservations are done in boxes that aren't sealed, though some still are.

Conant, of Orange, Conn., said she packs the dress in front of the bride. Many gown specialists now feel it's OK for people to open the box later, she said; it won't void the guarantee against yellowing.

"It's fun for them to see it again," she said, "and they like to reassure themselves."

The association, which has members in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Ecuador, requires gowns to be preserved in acid-free boxes.

Margaret's Cleaners, a member in La Jolla, Calif., packs the gowns in chests with acid-free tissue and wraps the gowns in unbleached muslin. The box is put into a muslin bag to keep out environmental debris. The boxes aren't sealed, and white gloves are provided so oil from your hands won't mar the fabric.

"We want our brides to be able to open the box and examine it every couple of years" in case any yellow spots start to show, said bridal director Jan Bohn.

Methods that involve shrink-wrapping or vacuum-sealing the boxes, which then must remain closed, are not recommended by Conant and Heather Levine, fashion editor of TheKnot.com.

"Vacuum-packing your gown can cause permanent wrinkles, or trap moisture," which can cause mildew, Levine said.

Cleaning the dress soon after the wedding is key to preventing discoloration and fabric damage.

At Margaret's, each gown is evaluated to determine how it should be cleaned, Bohn said. Her business has seven methods.

Cleaners remove blemishes that are visible (the most common is floor dirt) and invisible (usually perspiration, or sugar from Champagne, soda or frosting).

"If you do nothing, they will oxidize in a couple years," Bohn said. "You'll start seeing small yellow or brown marks, and then they grow and get bigger and they can damage the material."

Conant estimates that 80 percent of gowns have invisible stains, which cleaners find with special lights. "A lot of times people will think they didn't spill anything," she said. "But a friend throws her arms around you and in her hand is a glass of wine."

Levine urges brides who want to save their gown to use a gown specialist, or a local dry cleaner that handles at least 100 wedding gowns a year.

"You can't just go to the dry cleaner on the corner," she said. "On a day-to-day basis, most dry cleaners aren't working with silk organza and heavy beading."