Advice on storing paper fashion

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pgvintage

Registered Guest
Hi,
I'm a serial lurker on these boards and was hoping for some advice with this.
I have a sizable collection of paper (and paper-ish) fashions and am uncertain how to store them properly. While some are sealed in their plastic bags, most of them are either in opened envelopes or nothing at all. I was thinking perhaps polyethylene tubes like the ones used for posters might be an option (some of the garments are far too large to store flat and are showing wear from folding). If anyone has advice on this I would much appreciate it. Thanks!
 
What I was told to do with large garments that need to be folded for storage is to pad the folds with sausages of acid-free material (polyester fiber fill or acid-free tissue paper, for example). The paper dresses should not be in paper envelopes or touching things such as cardboard, but if you have cardboard material (such as the instructions that camewith it), you can put that in archival sleeves and keep it with the dress. If they are strong you could probably hang them on padded (with archivally safe material) hangers.

Store them in as stable an environment as you can find -- humidity and temperature controlled.
Lynne
 
Hi! Can you explain what you mean by paper fashions? Do you mean magazines & such, or paper garments? We have a member who has a collection of paper dresses, and I know he would be able to advise you on those.

I store my patterns & magazines in archival plastic sleeves with acid-free boards. The kind I use are made for comic books and magazines, and they come in a variety of sizes.

Laura
 
If you mean the paper dresses of the 1960s, I too have a large collection of them. Their worst fault is their high acidity and fire-retardant chemicals that will yellow the paper and eventually make the paper brittle. I doubt there is little you can do to save these forever, as they will continue to deteriorate under their own steam, regardless of how you store them. I am less worried about creases in them as the paper ones were made with a rayon or nylon scrim sandwiched between the two layers of paper, which is why they have a slight grid pattern when you look at them up close. However, you don't want sharp creases in the garments, but a rolled fold is going to be hard to get around and stuffing the folds are an excellent procedure if you have the time and space to do this. I store my best paper dresses in a large choroplast box that a conservator made for me, but you can also order an acid free box from an archives supply house, and layer each dress with a sheet of acid free paper between. The box will probalby not be wide enough so you will have to roll the edges under, or roll the garment in half and alternate their placement in the box. I think I have about twenty in my box, after that the weight of the top ones begins to crush the bottom ones. Most importantly, I would try to avoid hanging them and keep them away from light because they will yellow much faster. Those already in packages I would be inclined to leave as they are sealed from air infiltration, which will also yellow them.
 
Thank you so much for the extremely helpful advice - yes I did mean the paper clothes of the 60s - dresses, bikinis, coats, etc. Some are more fibrous (with the grid that you describe) while others are borderline plastic. While I don't have the space for large-scale storage, the acid-free boxes and padding the folds are definitely going to make a huge difference. Thanks again!
 
Get them out of those plastic bags!
the problem with them is that any changes in temperature/ humidity can cause condensation to build up in the bags and then youve got BIG problems. Its acid free tissue paper and breathable cotton garment bags all the way.

This link might be of interest

http://www.totalwardrobecare.co.uk/

Its a UK company but they should be able to ship it...
 
I am sorry but I disagree. condensation is not going to be a problem in a sealed inert plastic bag because there is already a micro-climate established inside the bag that is not going to change. Also, in the case of paper dresses air will oxidize the fire retardants and yellow the dress. Plastic is not advisable for most textiles but paper is not a textile, its a highly chemically processed cellulose pulp and in this case you should look towards archival management rather than textile care for hints on how to care for paper. You could consider having the paper garments de-acidified, but this is a VERY expensive process.
 
fair enough Jonathon...Ive had bad experiences with plastic bags in the past, and that has been largely textiles but what you say sounds logical enough.

What can I say except you learn from your mistakes !:saint:
 
I have seen problems that plastic bags can cause - especially on PVC vinyl, which dry cleaner bags stick to, white wool which yellows, and fur coats which suffocate and degrade. Normally I agree, get rid of the plastic bags, but this is one of those exceptions to the rules which I know for a fact only because I had two paper dresses, one in its original sealed plastic bag and one that I slit open and hung on a hanger in a closet. three years later, the hanging one had yellowed noticeably, but the one in the bag was still fine. The only problem is that sometimes the paper dresses use cotton tape trim around the neckline and the black cotton tape sometimes transfers to the paper -- something off gasses from the cotton and it oxidizes the paper dress wherever the cotton tape touches. Sometimes its easier to care for 400 year old textiles than it is to care for 40 year old garments!
 
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