BEFORE and AFTER

Supposedly, this black dress with fab white polka dots belonged to Ginger Rogers. Look at that teeny tiny waist! Dear God!

While, I probably would have preferred not to do anything to Ginger's dress and left it as is for posterity's sake, my client wanted a fresh new dress for resale. The result is cute and probably more suitable for today's young lady. It had rips near the hem, so we took the bottom part of the dress and ruched it up in parts. The arm pits were yellow and ripping so I cut down the armseye a bit. The belt buckle had been eaten away by time, so I took part of the hem and reworked the buckle : good as new!



I really like the idea of salvaging the old and recycling our garments to be wearable again. This is what most folks had to do before we made mass production so damned cheap and easy to throw away. But as we are all beginning to know now, the world cannot take too much more mass consumption. I don't have all the answers, but I do know that we have to look at other ways to achieve new looks and get more mileage out of our wardrobe. Its what our grandmothers and their grandmothers would have done. Whats good enough for them is good enough for me.