The truth is that Jen only sometimes washes or dry cleans an item before wearing because she's lazy, and also likes to wear her new items, a bunch of which she finds while traveling, immediately. But in truth, reputable boutiques should have already done the necessary spot removals and so forth. In the course of setting clothes out for display, proprietors not only dry clean the lots of estate clothes they've picked up on their rounds, they steam clean for wrinkles and also make minor repairs such as adding or replacing buttons. (This can add major value.) For instance, in this picture, taken at the window in the Rodin Museum, Jen (right, in green 1940's polyester) is wearing a freshly purchased item from the day before, found at Le Marche aux Puces in a little shop at the beginning of Les Halles de Dauphine.
However, if the item comes from a yard or garage sale, or if the piece comes from a place that has moths in the woolens--like a store did in Montclair, NJ, where Bridgett and Jen purchased a wedding dress for 27 Dresses (more on that particular adventure in another post to come)--it goes for cleaning, yes. Moths fluttering out while you're going through the racks are just one indication that nothing in the shop is being cleaned, let alone cared about.
Vintage finds sometimes hold the "essence" of their former owners. I've drycleaned structured jackets and worn them only to discover that my body heat ignites long lost B.O... There is something very disconcerting about OPP - Other People's Perspiration!
ReplyDeleteHaha! That is very funny--and all too true. I should mention that I often do the sniff test in a store--and not just in the pits. If any item smells musty/mildewy or like molth balls and gives me an allergy attack on the spot, then I'm always wary and no matter how much I like it, said item might stay put. Like OPP, Moth Ball Odor (MBO) is really tough to get rid of.
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