The Dress: From Tacky to Fabulous

Occasionally, I am lucky enough to find or be given a piece of clothing that is undeniably from a very specific era, that it can only be worn by the most adventurous fashionistas who don't mind walking the thin line between tacky and retro.

This dress was one of those pieces.

Take a moment to soak it all in.

Giant mutton sleeves. Bustle and bow on the backside. Cathedral train. Loads of gathering at the hips. Basque waist. Enough beading to sink a boat.

All things that might be wearable on their own if you wanted to stand out a bit. All together, however, and you're asking for mockery.

It seems a shame to let such a unique dress go to waste. So I got to work.

First thing to go was the sleeves.

Seriously. So much stiff tulle in there, you could use it as a pillow if you didn't mind waking up with the lace and bead pattern embedded into your face.

I saved all of the small pieces of lace and the beads to use for other projects (waste not).

After the sleeves were off, you were able to appreciate the beautiful work on the bodice without being overwhelmed. It had a lovely shape all on its own, but needed straps to hold it up. It's just too heavy otherwise. I chose to go with thin ones using some of the fabric from the train.

Next, I tackled the bustle and the bow. I'm all for retro and reinventing old styles, but is this a trend that we want to revive? No. I think not.

Oh, my, god. Becky, look at her butt. It is so big. She looks like, one of those rap guys' girlfriends.

The front of the dress was a conundrum. I put it on my dress form and stared at it for a few weeks before I had an idea, and it was another couple of weeks of staring before I worked up the courage to take my scissors to it.

Again, nothing intrinsically wrong with it, but my goal is to simplify. I finally decided that I would remove it, creating a high-low hemline. Perfect to show off some really adorable wedding shoes. By removing the middle of the front, I also removed a lot of the overall weight of the dress which allowed it to fluff outward a little more evenly (unexpected bonus!).

The train was the most time consuming item on the list.

Again, very beautiful, but it just doesn't work with everything else. I trimmed it down to a sweeping train and hand stitched the lace back onto the hem. It took forever, but it was worth it.

I think that I'll use the lace and tulle that I removed for a veil.

Here's a few pictures of the finished project. The plan is to sell it on Etsy. I think this would be the perfect dress for a bride with an adorable pair of shoes and a weakness for beading.