Signature service
Wedding gown cleaning & preservation
The one garment that has to survive longer than you will wear it. We have been cleaning and preserving wedding gowns for over three decades: by hand, one at a time, and finished in a museum-quality preservation box.
Brides drive 70 miles to bring us a gown. There are not many shops left that will do this work by hand, one gown at a time, in the building you hand it over in.
Before you put it away
The stains you cannot see are the ones that set
Champagne, wine, cake and perfume leave almost no mark on the day. Over the following months their sugars oxidise and come back as brown patches, and by then they are far harder to remove, sometimes permanently. If the gown is sitting in a garment bag waiting for a decision, that is the thing worth knowing.
How it is done
Four steps, none of them rushed
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Bring it in
Walk into either shop with the gown. No appointment. We look at it with you at the counter, note the fabric, the trim and anything you already know about, and give you a price before anything is started.
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Inspected inch by inch
Before any cleaning, the gown is gone over by hand: the hem, the bodice, every seam. Beading, sequins, lace and hand embroidery are found and noted so they are worked around rather than discovered halfway through.
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Hand-cleaned
A gown is cleaned on its own, by hand, never batched with anything else. Marks are treated individually and gently, because the fabric only tolerates one attempt.
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Inspected again, then boxed
It is checked a second time against the first inspection, then folded and packed into a museum-quality preservation box built to hold it for decades rather than merely store it.
What you take home
A box built for decades, not a garment bag
The gown comes back packed into a museum-quality preservation box, the same class of container a conservator would use, rather than the plastic bag it arrived in. Plastic traps moisture and yellows fabric over years; this does not.
It is made to be put in a wardrobe or under a bed and left there, and to still be worth opening when a daughter asks about it.
The same hands
Done here, by the people you hand it to
The gown does not leave the building. It is not sent to a plant, and it is not handled by anyone you have not met. The family that takes it at the counter is the family that cleans it.
That is the whole reason this service has stayed in the shop for thirty-five years: there is nobody to blame if it goes wrong, so it does not. It is also why gowns arrive here from 70 miles away, from brides who passed a dozen cleaners on the way.
Questions
What brides ask
- How soon after the wedding should I bring it in?
- As soon as you reasonably can. Champagne, wine, cake and perfume are mostly invisible on the day, but the sugars in them oxidise over months into brown stains that are far harder to lift, sometimes impossible. A gown brought in within a few weeks is a much easier job than the same gown a year later.
- My gown has been in a garment bag for years. Is it too late?
- Not necessarily, and it is worth asking. Old oxidised staining does not always come out completely, and we will tell you honestly what we think can and cannot be improved before you commit to anything.
- What about beading, sequins and delicate lace?
- They are the reason the gown is done by hand and on its own. Trims are identified at the first inspection and worked around individually.
- Do you handle veils and headpieces too?
- Bring them in with the gown and ask at the counter. They are looked at and quoted separately.
- How long does it take?
- Longer than ordinary dry cleaning, because none of it is rushed. You are given a realistic date at the counter when you drop it off.
Bring the gown in
Either shop, any time during business hours. Ask for a look at the counter. There is no charge for being told what we think.