Friday, March 12, 2010

Closet Capers!

This past summer my parents suffered a flood in their apartment that completely ruined my brother's room, the hall carpets and portions of their bedroom and my sister's bedroom (formerly also mine). In the first few months of dealing with massive industrial dryers, ripped up carpeting, knocked out ceilings and walls (they also redid the bathrooms - why not when you have to bring in construction guys just for repairs?), my whole family moaned and groaned and cursed our luck. I spent an entire weekend helping them clear out all the damaged areas, including my parent's closet which desperately needed attention.

And now, thank god I did help my mom clear out all the old clothes she had accumulated over the years. She also had a number of items whose origin is still questionable; she let me keep them since her solution was to donate/throw out anything she no longer wanted.


When we pulled this dress out of the closet, my mom admitted that she wasn't completely sure if it had been her mother's or her grandmother's. All we could figure out is that it must have been a custom tailored gown since there is not a single tag on this dress - not even to tell me what the materials are. The black lace is gorgeous, huge flowers cover the entire skirt. I was a little surprised to try it on and discover that it almost fits me:

Close, but not quite. I'm usually a 4-6 size, and the bodice was slightly larger. As you can see, I had to hold the back to keep it up, and also to get the best sense of what it would look like if it fit me like a glove. The huge bow in back is horribly wrinkled from being stored for eons in the back of my mom's closet. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this. Tailor it to fit? Alter it completely? Selling seems like a waste since I have no information on it. But this other dress I definitely want to keep.


Its a grey silk slip of a dress with a silk belt to cinch it in at the waist. The lace on the shoulders is beautiful, as you can clearly see in the image above. A few of the beads are probably missing, but maybe I can find some replacements. I just need to iron all those wrinkles out. Other than the one tiny label that says its silk, again no idea where/when its from.


But there was one easily identifiable item in the "get rid off" pile; this Yves Saint Laurent plaid skirt. Its about knee-length on me (and yes those wrinkles have a date with an iron soon) and the most versatile piece I managed to walk away with. Of course, after taking a closer look at all of these I want to dive right into all of our closets during my NYC visit this weekend. No idea if I'll have time to (Dad just had knee-replacement surgery so I need to spend time with him, not clothes), but I'm definitely going to try to bring back something good.

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