AISLE BE BACK
Brides say ‘I do’ in moms’ redone dress
“Something borrowed” is getting a stylish new twist.
The latest trend in bridal fashion is a wifeto-be taking her mother’s vintage wedding dress and restyling to her own taste — perhaps hacking off the puffy ’80s sleeves — to wear on the big day or the events leading up to it.
“When I got engaged, one of the first things I did was ask my mom for her dress,” newlywed Jamie Guillory, 27, told The Post. “I tried it on and decided that I wanted to [restyle it] and wear it for my wedding rehearsal dinner.”
Here’s how Guillory and other brides are redoing their moms’ dresses.
Sleeping beauty
When Samantha Humbach asked her mother, Karen Verreault, for the OK to chop up her prized “princess” wedding gown from 1988 and transform it into a pair of earrings — as well as items for her trousseau — for her June 4 nuptials, she was worried the answer would be a hard no. But, to her surprise, Mom was more than happy to unbox her $1,000 frock for a haute overhaul.
“She was like, ‘Absolutely! I love that it’s going to get reused,’ ” Humbach, 32, a fashion designer from Fort Atkinson, Wis., told The Post.
She used the pearls and beading from the original to create a pair of dangling, shoulder-length earrings to accessorize her own $175 A-line, empire-waist dress. Her creativity didn’t end there. Humbach also tapped a seamstress to transform the fabric of Verreault’s finery into a pair of bridal pajamas, a wedding day robe (at left) and a tutu for her pup, Oakley.
“My mom thought everything was absolutely adorable and so pretty,” said Humbach, regretting, however, that her mom didn’t cry at the sight of the rebooted dress. But “she thought me and Oakley looked beautiful.”
Bright idea
When Brittany Labbe exhumed mom Carolyn Labbe’s high-collared, embroidery-laced wedding dress from the garbage bag it’d been stored in since 1985, she was shocked to discover the once pearly white two-piece had turned completely yellow.
But that didn’t stop Labbe, 30, from nursing the $40 dress back to health and restyling it into a funky wedding skirt and jacket for her upcoming nuptials this summer. She also plans to sport the restyled splendor for her bridal shower.
The Labbe ladies “looked up a recipe for a whitening mixture on YouTube and soaked her dress in it for about 12 hours,” Brittany, from Starkville, Miss., told The Post.
The women used a blend of OxiClean, powered Tide, Calgon and Arm & Hammer’s Super Washing Soda to restore Carolyn’s dress to its milky glory. Then, with a few strips of elastic from Joann fabrics, the doit-yourself mom and daughter made the bottom of the original dress into an ontrend highwaisted bridal midi-skirt.
Rather than reimagining the frock’s oldfashioned neckline, the pair simply turned the top of the dress around and made it an open jacket.
“My parents have an amazing marriage,” said Labbe. “So I really wanted to repurpose her dress as a symbol of true love for my big day.”
Saving lace
On May 20, just before tying the knot with husband Preston in Laguna Beach, Calif., Guillory donned a frock that her mother, Donna MacDonald, wore when she got married in July 1989.
The lacy number had originally cost $400; Guillory paid a seamstress $200 to fashion it into a billowing midi ensemble with a fitted silk slip to wear the night before her wedding.
The dramatic redesign went viral on TikTok, and has garnered an impressive 2.2 million views.
“Having the dress remade was such a fun and special once-ina-lifetime project,” said Guillory, a real estate consultant who lives in Orange County, Calif. “And my mom was really happy that the dress could have a second life. And she was even more excited than I was.”