Wow, a gown arrived yesterday with profound proof that you should never seal a wedding gown. This dress was sent to us from Ann Gutierrez. It has been “safely” in storage for many years.  Now Ann is hoping her daughter will be able to wear the gown, but when she opened her preservation box, what a surprise! Terrible oxidized stains throughout the gown, the underarms are very yellow, and the area right in front, underneath the plastic window is yellowed.

How can this be possible?  First of all, on testing the box we discovered it was not acid-free (an essential for preservation).  Most likely it was dry-cleaned before storage, and it may have looked great at the time, but dry-cleaning does not remove water based substances such as champagne, clear soda, or even perspiration.   So over time, these substances still on the gown have oxidized into very bad stains.

If the gown had not been sealed, Ann could have inspected it periodically and discovered these stains sooner.

Preservation box was sealed	Wedding gown has yellowed under plastic window
Oxidized Hemline stains	Oxidized Underarm stains