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The story of this incredible 1920’s restoration glass bead gown.

My favorite vintage thing to collect has got to be textiles. I love vintage clothing down to the smell, texture of the textiles and the wide variety of styles. The earlier the better. The issue with very early items such as this 1920s heavily beaded acid green gown, is that the more time passes the more the elements, take a toll on these gorgeous textiles. Fortunately, the beads last quite a long time. Therefore, the beard work on this dress needed repair, because the textiles and threads in the dress would not be able to hold the weight of these very heavy glass beads. Fortunately, all of the stitching still lined up so we were able to preserve the dress exactly the way it was and add a heavier lining material on the inside.

After the lining material was added, my friends at Jans Restorations and painstakingly sewed almost every tiny little glass bead to the backing. This ensures that the threads holding the beads on, do not further decay, in turn allowing the beads fall off the dress, also, ensuring the original textile of the dress stays intact, protecting this garment from stress wear, that would pull the fabric apart as it ages and dries out. One incredibly important piece to storing this dress is that it cannot be stored hanging for very long due to the delicate linen fabric, holding such a heavy beaded weigt.

This dress stays stored folded in unbleached, archival, cotton fabric that will allow it to breathe, but keep it safe from the elements.

As I am working with this gown, I am usually wearing white gloves to ensure that the oils on my fingers and my body don’t stain the fabric. The oils on our fingers can speed up the process of fabric decay as time goes on. In addition to that, wearing white gloves to work with this dress, as I am taking it in an out of the box assures that no dirt gets transferred onto the dress as well.

Obviously, while I am modeling this incredible piece, I do not wear white gloves, but I am incredibly careful of how I handle this garment while I am not gloved.