When does something that was “vintage” become “antique”?
Is there a rule for this? Let me know in the comments!!
My grandmother, born Phyllis Marie Ripepi in 1921, got married in August of 1939.
She was born in a small mining town, to an ordinary immigrant family.
After she passed away in 2011, I ended up with her wedding dress and shoes.
The dress was in the bottom of a black plastic sack, had been home to many mice over the year, and had experienced the extreme temperatures of being relegated to family storage.
The tulle had been so heavily starched, that the entire thing was near-solid!
I expect that food-based starch was used, making it extra tasty for rodents.
Working as carefully as I could, I used steam to soften the starch, so that the dress could be opened up.
The result, though tattered made my heart flutter just a bit.
Here are photos from the process – final ones at the end (and I hope to locate the higher-res ones soon).
I hope you’ll enjoy them.
