Danielle Colby Striptease Historian | The Queen of Rust

Dry Rot in vintage,

Added 2023-12-07 15:11:23 +0000 UTC

What do I look for when picking vintage?

Quality, condition, quality, condition, quality, condition…..

It all comes down to the quality and condition of an item.

If I can see dry rot in the fabric, seams, stitching or if the garment feels extra dry to the touch I avoid purchasing and admire from a distance because there will be very little life in that garment for daily or even occasional use.

If dry rot has set in, it’s the kiss of death to a textile.

Dry rot is a fungus from alternating temperatures and humidity setting into the fabric. Textiles love consistency in temperature and hate temperature extremes. Dry rot looks like a shattering of the textile, usually starting where sweat and body oils accumulate the most such as arm pits, collar, wrists. The oils and salt in our sweat break fabric down more quickly.

Most of these dresses were worn over underpinnings, slips or petticoats to protect the focal piece from damage from sweat but also those were more modest times.

Dry rot looks different from textile to textile. But here are a couple references to spotting dry rot.

Here is a great article that talks about how to test for dry rot in t shirts

https://thriftcon.co/blogs/education/what-dry-rot-is-and-two-ways-to-test-for-it-in-your-tees

This article is about dresses more like this acid green beauty…

https://circavintageclothing.com.au/2012/03/08/the-perils-of-vintage-dry-rot/