This week’s About a Dress originally came to us from Rock It Again (1528 U St NW), the fabulous vintage shop next door. Definitely intended to be a dressing gown/housecoat from the 1940s, age and sun damage made it virtually unwearable. The sleeves were amazing, but bleached out beyond repair. They unfortunately had to go. I also had to soak the dress overnight in Borax to lift out any residual dirt/age spots in the silk. (Side note: Borax is the ultimate cleaner if you shop vintage. It’s totally natural- been in use since the late 1800s- and won’t disintegrate your delicate garments like OxyClean tends to do. Plus, you can get it at Target and it’s super cheap. Obviously, Kristen and I don’t get paid to endorse products- cause who cares what we buy?- but I would TOTALLY endorse Borax. It’s saved soooo many garments for me!)

And back to the dress: after cleaning out literally decades of dust, I flipped the dress around so that the zipper now went up the back. Then I hemmed off 8″ of the skirt and re-cut the armscye. Lately I’ve been really obsessed with mixing coral and peach based color palettes with bluish reds and vibrant fuchsia  I did a little color blocking around the armscye (courtesy of some vintage lining fabric that my mother’s had since the 70s), and made a matching belt. The dress ended up a little spring-like, but if you pair it with black tights and accessories, it’s perfect for a winter wedding. Or (my personal favorite) wear it with bright purple and red. Let’s bring a little color into winter!

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