SHOPPING YOUR OWN VINTAGE WARDROBE
The perfect gown could be hiding in plain sight in your family’s wardrobe.
As an environmental prefect, Auckland student Sian Moloney went into her ball dress search knowing she wasn’t going to buy a ready-made gown.
Instead, Moloney turned to her mother’s wardrobe, where Moloney spotted a black halter tie dress that, with a little shaping, had the potential to become the perfect dress for her ball.
Samantha King, who makes custom clothing and upcycles items through her alteration business Louisa K, helped Moloney rework her mother’s dress into something befitting of her figure and fashion.
“We changed it into a strapless [dress] with a wider tie, shortened the hem and used the fabric that was removed to create the new strapless design,” King says. “We also added a long split to the front.”
King says a dress redesign such as Moloney’s will generally cost at least $100, but points out that this is still less than buying a new dress, plus Moloney now “has a one of a kind gown that no-one else will have”.
King says that alterations such as changing the neckline or hemline of a dress can easily update the style of an older garment and generally only take one or two weeks to complete.
It is best to go to the alterer with an open mind, and listen to their advice about what can be achieved.
King says to keep in mind that if a dress is a bright colour or a printed fabric, it would be difficult to find supplementary fabric to match. So, if they are looking to add a detail such as a sleeve, it is better if they can take fabric from another area of the dress.
“The best alterations are those that don’t look like anything was altered at all.” Moloney says a major benefit with these types of outfits is they come with sentimentality. “I have been wearing my mum’s dresses for years. This process has been very sentimental.”