Thoughts on This video

Joji Furukawa

Joji Furukawa

Registered Guest
I came across this video on Youtube of a young woman who transforms clothing from thrift
stores into fashionable pieces. In this video, she takes a 1950s prom dress into a shorter party dress. I am not sure how I fell about this as I prefer vintage to be conserved but also I think it's great that people are finding new ways to appreciate vintage. What do you think about this?

 
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Joji, the video isn't working for me, but the VFG is "dedicated to the promotion and preservation of vintage fashion" so I agree with you.

If you own a dress, you're welcome to do what you like with it but every time someone alters a sought after design from the original form, they're increasingly the value of the unaltered pieces. Whenever anyone talks to me about altering garments, I recommend that wherever possible, they avoid cutting the fabric off so at least it can be restored later if desired.
 
Hi Nicole,

Just fixed the video, sorry about that. In the video, she completely alters the dress, cutting off the sleeves and quite a bit of fabric. I do like the finished product and I think it looks great but I agree that as you said, this lowers the number of unaltered pieces. I personally would never completely alter something from certain eras, so I am sort of torn between really thinking this is cool and sort of not liking her video for encouraging this. But as you said, they are welcome to do what they wish to do with what they purchase. Also, the label appears to be Leslie Fay judging by the thick line that would be on the top of the F and the stylized L.
 
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What she really did was buy an old dress for the fabric. Every dress can't be saved -- if it had stained underarms it would be easier to appreciate her transformation but it was a great condition, albeit just an average nylon taffeta cocktail dress from the 1950s... What is worse is when someone takes a good couture or antique dress and does something unfixable to it... I have seen Edwardian dresses with knee length skirts and Dior cocktail dresses with mini hemlines... That REALLY hurts!
 
I agree with all of you. Whilst I like being creative, I'm not for making something new out of completely good, wearable vintage dress or altering them so it can't be undone. I have a 40s dress that I took in, because it was too fabulous not to buy and wear it. However, I just took it in without snipping anything off - undo two extra hems and it's back to it's original size (and I did not use the smallest stitchlength - the seams are undoable). This is the utmost I'd do to a piece like that, but I prefer buy things that fit anyway. I occasionally buy modern things in secondhand shops that I make new things out of - XL silk blouses that are a nice color for example, and have enough fabric to make a top out of from a vintage pattern. That is much more fun...
 
I agree. If it's an undamaged or repairable piece, keep it intact. I have a growing collection of projects originally bought with the intention of repurposing but are too beautiful to scrap.

It's very tempting with many of the luscious fabrics I come across to remake them into costume pieces. I do have some lamé dresses that have very uneven tarnish and discolouration that prevent them from being worn. It's so hard to buy that quality of fabric now. I'm still deliberating. But I can also see how much more could be made of even the 'bad' areas in another garment, than in their current state.

Much as I love using old fabrics and trims to make other things, I absolutely hate seeing something beautiful with history being taken apart unnecessarily. It's not (quite) so difficult a choice when the item is falling apart, and it's good to see new life breathed into a forgotten wreck.
 
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