Thread: Costume distress - advice needed

My gold eman (same as deeley's but bought a year ago), a red shiny eman dress and a purple hannan are all made out of similar stuff - its like swimsuit grade lycra in appropriate colour with little tiny metallic spots (NOT glitter dot, more the size of real glitter, but not glitter if that makes any sense!). It gives the fabric a metallic sheen, granted not quite as shiny but a lot more durable and flexible.
The red on the dress i got second hand has worn off to silver in places (not my doing) but my gold and purple I've had from new have had no probs whatsoever (I'm a very non sweaty person, this probably helps)

I dunno what L Rose uses though . . .

Z

Originally Posted by jilyan

Deelybopper, so sorry to hear about this beautiful costume!!! ..cr.:

I recognise that costume, is that the one with the ankh decoration on the front? I bought one similar from Eman in April last year. She told me she was using a different fabric for that particular costume because the original fabric didn't wear very well.

So sorry this doesn't help you, but at least she is aware that the fabric is problematic and no longer uses it.

hugs from the other end for the world xx jilyan

Yes i bought this costume from Jilyan, and i have had none of the problems your experiencing with yours. So Eman is definitely aware of the problem with the previous metallic fabric. I would contact her and tell her about the problems you are having. Maybe she will offer some kind of help?

Good Luck
Julie

I have emailed Eman for advice...will let you know what she says!

Thanks for all the advice & commiserations so far!
D

Just to let you know - I emailed Eman, and she acknowledges that there are problems with this fabric, particularly in relation to perfume & sweat. I gather from her suggestions that she thinks some kind of fabric paint or covering the blotches with decoration (she said rainbow shine stones?) would be the way round it.
D

I talked to Tim at Dahlal about this yesterday (the Eman costume I bought has a bit of this fabric on it). Tim said his experience with these fabrics in theater is that some people have more acidic sweat than others(!!!) and will have a bigger problem.

I plan to wear nice cottony absorbent boy shorts under mine.

It might be worth getting hold of some of the stuff that museums use to store their textile collections. The way that you have been storing this costume seems totally sensible to me but for this sort of 'modern' fabric you may need to go the extra mile.

I watched a program a while ago about museum conservation at the Elvis museum in Graceland and they have had to be very inovative in the way they approach costume conservation because so many of his outfits used this kind of material.

I will contact one of our mutual acquaintances who will know what you need and where to get it.

Good luck!

Hi khadiya - it would be great if you asked around, however, I think the damage is already done with this costume.....cr.:

Originally Posted by deelybopper

Thanks guys - however, I didn't buy this directly from Eman - I got it second hand from another dance - will that matter?
D

Go back to the person you bought it from and ask her to asisit you in a replacement from Eman.
This is actually quite common with this fabric and it has a limited shelf life. I had one exactley the same and it start to go very funny. Heat and moist air seems to affect it even more.
Its not good when you pay a fortune for these costumes.

Hi

Though I'd revive this thread briefly to share what I've found out about museum level conservation and this type of fabric.

The news isn't especially reassuring. My contacts in museums have told me that modern, metallic fabrics are an absolute pain to conserve effectively and that with a problem like this, they would be calling in expert help from the top level such as the Winchester Textile Conservation Centre in the UK

The key issues are twofold: 1) These fabrics are not designed to have a long shelf life or for durability so they degrade at a much faster rate than more 'traditional cloths';

2) metallic fabrics are highly susceptible to the smallest temperature change. This has been described to me as like paint on wood where one the layers of paint and wood expand and contract at different rates, causing flaking off.

In terms of storage, I know from reading back threads that most Bhuz members are doing the right sort of things. However, the advice I have been given is that best practice storage for textiles is as follows:

Store flat in as few a layers of fabric as possible in archival standard acid-free cardboard storage (like giant shoe boxes)

Wrap fabrics in a protective layer of acid free tissue paper within the boxes.

(see Preservation Equipment)

Air and gently swab any problem areas before storage using distilled water or distilled water with a solvent like vodka.

Take care not to store costumes with metallic components in contact with anything that might contain even a trace of wool (wool releases reactive chemicals).

store at as cool a temperature as possible.


Its all pretty obvious, but I thought people might be interested to hear my findings, especially the importance of temperature in relation to metallic fabrics.

Hi khadiya...thanks for this. I'm not sure that my storage container is acid-free, so may have to hunt out some archive boxes. In any case...the damage is already done to this costume, so probably not much hope of reviving it. However...hope this info is put into practice by others reading the thread!!!