How to repair / conseerve 1940's silk wedding veil?

[Hazel]

I bought a 1940's vintage wedding veil from Ebay (the headdress is classic 1940's with wax orange blossom flowers and silver beads). It's chapel? length (floor length with a puddle train), square with gorgeous swirls of a thick thread along the edge and much larger swirls in the corners stitched to the net. Not seen anything like it before...

I assumed it was a man-made net (still learning!) however I took it along to a vintage specialist dry cleaners who told me it's silk (argh!). She pointed out a couple of areas of rot / shattering I had not noticed and has given it a VERY gentle hand wash for me. The holes have got slightly larger...

We discussed the possibility of sewing a very light piece of net behind the holes to support them and prevent them getting any larger, however she's worried that the extra weight will cause the area to further deteriorate. She is of the opinion it's too fragile to wear.

Now, I'm torn (unintended pun!). I love it and would like to wear it, providing I can adequately protect and strengthen it without detracting from it's authenticity. However the historian in me is reluctant to put it at risk.

Does anyone have any suggestion, opinions? Recommendations for somewhere in the UK that might be able to assist? I'd post pictures but it's still at the dry cleaners...

Thankyou!

 

[Jonathan]

There have been machines to make net since the 1810s, so it will be a machine net, not man-made. Silk wedding veils are a bane to museums because its like trying to store butterfly wings. You should store it rolled, but ultimately, there aren't a lot of options for repair. Keep you eye open for more silk net to reinforce holes, but sewing it may cause more damage if the silk net is friable.