Todays gowns are more creative than ever. Embellishments include crystals, beads, buttons, and feathers. Although these adornments are beautiful, but some brides may be a bit afraid to make that purchase because it will be hard to clean, so I asked an expert.
1. Wedding dresses with feathers are popular today, but how does a bride prep her dress for the wedding day?
2. Can you lightly steam that dress?
1 / 2. Feathers can absolutely handle light steam. Remember, feathers
come from birds, which get wet without issue in the wild - water isn't
going to ruin feathers, but severe heat may. Best advice I can give any
bride, pre-wedding day: keep the gown away from and cats or dogs. Those
are always the most upsetting blemishes, and we've seen them numerous
times. Although... there are exceptions. I just rec'd a dog wedding gown
the other day, and that would have been difficult to keep away from
pets!
3. If something spills on those feathers, does that club soda thing work?
3. The club soda trick is a persistent and annoying old wives' tale.
Club soda is just water with bubbles - I'm afraid it doesn't have any
magical cleaning ability. The feathers should actually have water
repellency of their own, it's the surrounding fabric I would have
concerns about. I'd recommend leaving the spot cleaning to the pros,
especially pre-wedding day - it's a bad time to have a wardrobe crisis.
Regarding actual wedding day - we once had a bride who came through
in her limo between the ceremony and reception, after suffered a bit of
spotting from some grease. Speaking to her on the phone, I assumed it
was a catastrophe, but it was mostly in her head. ;) Whenever I have the
opportunity to speak to a bride before her wedding day, I always tell
them not to worry about stains and spills the day of - just to keep
partying! If someone spills a dish or glass of red wine, roll with it,
enjoy yourself... and then after the honeymoon, bring it to us!
4. When a dress comes to you with feathers on it, I know you make the
impossible, possible, but please tell my readers the care you put into a
feathery dream dress.
4. All wedding gowns receive individual attention, care, and love at
Meurice. It's one of those garments where we really have the opportunity
to wow - there's nothing else that passes though our doors with a
greater emotional attachment. Depending upon the type and level of
ornamentation, we might remove and replace, cover, hand-clean or
disassemble each section of the gown in order to achieve thorough and
safe. We once had a feathered gown where we cleaned each feather one at a
time using q-tips in order to preserve the original design.
Every gown is different - whenever we have a bride in the shop we
spend however long it takes to thoroughly examine the piece in person,
and then our cleaning technicians develop a plan to clean it flawlessly.
Thank you Mr. Edelman
800.240.3377
PS I have used Meurice Cleaners and have been very happy with the service.
