Author: Leah R. McCoy | Last Updated March 28, 2024
Nothing can be more devastating than realizing your wedding dress has become a yellowed and faded memory of the brilliant gown it once was. You may be wondering if your wedding dress is a total loss or if it can be transformed back to its original beauty.
The good news is that wedding dresses have been whitened and restored that are more than 100 years old, and yours can be too! It is, however, important to manage your expectations and determine if it is best to have your wedding dress professionally restored by trained experts or if you want to risk trying to whiten your dress yourself.
What You'll Learn:
- Why Does Fabric Yellow Over Time?
- What Causes Wedding Dresses to Turn Yellow?
- How Long Does it Take for a Wedding Dress to Yellow?
- Can a Yellowed Wedding Dress Be Whitened?
- Will Cleaning My Yellowed Dress Myself Damage it?
- How Your Yellowed Wedding Dress Can be Professionally Fixed and Whitened
- Yellowed Wedding Dress FAQ
- Proper Wedding Dress Storage
Imagine the following situation… It has been 10 years since your wedding day and your 8 year old daughter is asking all kinds of questions about that special day when your new life began. “Come with me!” you say, “I’ll show you my wedding dress that you loved so much from our wedding album”. Excited, you lead her to your bedroom closet, reach way in the back, and take out your 10 year old wedding dress, still in the original plastic dry cleaning bag.
You notice that it looks a little different, but you think that it may just be that the dry cleaning bag has discolored. You take it out into the daylight and lay it out on your bed only to find your once brilliant white wedding dress has dulled with time into a bland, yellowed shadow of the brilliant gown it once was.
Unfortunately, the above scenario is all too familiar. Nearly every day we have brides contact us asking why their wedding dress has yellowed, how it happened, and how they can fix it. Let’s take a look at the answers to all these great questions and some options you can take to return your yellowed wedding gown back to its original wedding day brilliance.
Why Do Wedding Dresses Yellow Over Time?
One of the oldest and most widespread quality issues within the textile industry is fabric yellowing. The fabric colors that are most susceptible to yellowing (and very unfortunate for brides) are market whites and shades of light pastels. The simple answer to this age-old question is that wedding dress yellowing is an unanticipated chemical degradation of the original fabric fibers that compose the dress.
This means that as colorless chemicals within the fabric begin the inevitable process of aging, they change color to become light to moderately yellow in color. It is very common to see older gowns that have very dark brown (in extreme cases these stains can become black) stains on them which is an indication of continued chemical decomposition over an extended period of time due to staining that was most likely invisible before the wedding dress was put into storage.
It has been common knowledge for some time now that fabric yellowing is on the rise. Why? The reason is due to the simple fact that there are more synthetic fiber blends in wedding gowns than ever before.
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Don’t let your precious wedding dress become a yellowed, faded memory of your wedding day. Reverse the hands of time with the Nation’s most renowned Wedding Dress Restoration Kit, trusted by over 3,000,000 brides since 1913 to return thier yellowed wedding gown back to their original splendor. We go beyond the typical lifetime guarantee to offer our customers a 100-year anti-yellowing guarantee from the date it is preserved.
What Causes Wedding Dresses to Turn Yellow?
Now that we know fabric yellowing is due to the breakdown of the chemical makeup of the fabric, let’s take a look at the possible culprits that may have led to the initial breakdown of the fabrics in your wedding dress.
Fiber Oxidation
The fabrics used in wedding dresses, like silk and satin, are prone to a natural process called oxidation. This event occurs when the fabric's fibers react with oxygen in the air, resulting in a chemical change that turns the material yellow or ivory.
Pure white fabrics (most often found in wedding dresses) has less dye or pigment, so it tends to show oxidation faster. Ivory or ecru dresses oxidize as well but the effect is less noticeable than brillinat white fabrics. Oxidation is the most powerful and most common reason wedding dresses yellow over time.
Exposure to UV Light
Sunlight and other light sources contain ultraviolet (UV) rays that can break down fabrics over time. The longer the exposure, the more yellowing occurs. Storing a wedding dress in direct sunlight or under bright bulbs speeds up oxidation.
Light and UV exposure accounts for up to 70% of fabric discoloration in vintage textiles, which is why museums take great care in ensuring fabrics are never displayed in direct sunlight and are often showcased in UV-protected display cases.
High Heat & Humidity
Heat and moisture greatly accelerate the oxidization process of delicate fabrics. Areas with high humidity can cause yellowing even if a dress is stored in a dark closet. The hotter and more humid the storage conditions, the faster oxidation will occur. Areas of your home this includes is as follows:
- Spaces with hot temperatures above 75°F will speed up oxidization.
- Spaces where humidity levels exceed 65% introduces moisture that yellows fabric.
- Avoid attics, basem*nts and garages for storage due to heat and humidity fluctuations.
Chemical Additives
While no fault of a bride, a common cause of wedding dress yellowing results from chemicals that were added during the manufacturing process of the fabric that comprises her dress. Often time’s, chemicals in textile softeners (chlorine, oils, animal fats, waxes, etc.) can begin to decompose due to the effects of incorrect chemical formulation combined with long-term wedding dress storage. In addition, these chemicals can attract harmful particulates such as dirt, dust, and oils from your busy wedding day which can speed up the yellowing process.
Pollutants in the Atmosphere
Atmospheric pollutants can be one of the most potent agents that cause fabrics to yellow, particularly nitrogen. These oxides can come from automobile pollution, home heating systems, and various industrial processes. It’s important to note that yellowing from air pollutants normally only occur on the surface of the gown. This is one reason why the preservation facility your dress is processed in should have a state of the art air circulation and purification system to keep out all air contaminates during the wedding gown preservation process.
Phenolic Yellowing
For many years it has been well known that polyethylene (plastic) bags cause fabric yellowing knows as “phenolic yellowing”. Beyond just plastic coverings, phenolic yellowing can also be caused by cardboard, acidic papers, and other wrapping materials.
For this reason the Wedding Gown Preservation Kit™ uses acid-free tissue paper and an acid-free wedding dress storage box to eliminate any chance of Phenolic Yellowing during the long-term storage of your wedding gown.
Wedding Day Stains & Contaminates
Think about your wedding day… Throughout the day your wedding dress is bombarded with contaminates that can stick to, or absorb, into the fabrics of your gown. You have dirt from the dance floor, body lotion, grass stains from an outdoor photoshoot, a wine stain from a toast with a friend, sugar stains from cutting the cake, perfume re-application, deodorant, sweat from memories made on the dance floor… you get the idea.
Are these stains worth it? We say, of course! It’s those memories that will last forever and with our advanced wedding dress cleaning and preservation service, you can keep those memories close to your heart, and off your wedding dress, before it is put away into storage.
How Long Does it Take a Wedding Dress to Yellow?
The delicate fabrics in a wedding dress will begin to yellow after just six months if your dress is not cleaned, cared for, and stored properly after your wedding day. While you may think your wedding dress looks pretty close to perfect after your big day is over, keep in mind, it is the stains you can’t see that are the main culprits in future spot staining in addition to general fabric yellowing.
If left untreated for many years your wedding dress will turn darker shades of yellow, finally reaching hues of light brown in just a few decades. If your wedding dress is stored away untreated, yellowing can even occur in an environment where heat, moisture, and temperature are ideal. Storing your wedding dress in a musty basem*nt, in a hot attic or garage, or in an area of direct sunlight, accellerate the yellowing process exponentially.
Along with overall fabric yellowing, invisible stains will also cause what is known in the industry as spot “scorching” on your wedding dress. These unsightly brown spots were once perspiration, deodorant, white wine, and other contaminates from your wedding day which were invisible to your eye when you put your dress away into storage. These invisible stains contained chemicals, along with latent sugar that caramelizes over time, into the fabrics of your gown, breaking down those delicate fabric fibers.
Can a Yellowed Wedding Dress Be Whitened?
The good news is there is hope for your yellowed wedding dress and in most cases your dress can be fixed and returned back to its original brilliance. Advancements in technology, along with new breakthroughs in delicate fiber cleaning formulations, have made today a great time to consider having your old, yellowed wedding dress whitened and restored.
Through the multi-step process of wet cleaning, dry cleaning, and spot cleaning, your yellowed wedding dress can be restored to its original brilliance to be enjoyed (and even worn again!) by your future generations. Professional wedding dress restoration companies are experienced in treating and whitening every type of delicate fabric found in your yellowed wedding gown, from satin, to fine lace, and even silk.
With each fabric in your wedding dress having its own unique properties, attempting to clean your own yellowed wedding dress in a bathtub or washing machine can have disastrous results.
If you plan on keeping your wedding dress as a memory to be passed down, it is best to leave this process to the professionals with the experience, training, and equipment to professionally clean and whiten your yellowed wedding dress.
Will Cleaning My Yellowed Dress Myself Damage it?
As fantastic as it would be to have a DIY kit to clean and whiten a yellowed wedding dress, there are so many variables and fabric types in wedding dresses that it makes it impossible to promise you won’t end up doing more harm to your wedding dress than good. If you do choose to undergo this painstaking process yourself in an effort to fix your yellowed wedding dress, here are a few important notes.
Warning! If attempting to clean your yellowed gown yourself, we cannot be held responsive for any damage incurred.
Bleach – While great for getting stains out of Johnny’s baseball pants, bleach is a killer when it comes to delicate fabrics such as silk. In addition to not getting out stains very well, bleach can dissolve the adornments on your gown and cause permanent fabric damage.
Soak, when possible, don’t scrub – Most fabric specialists recommend soaking your wedding gown in lukewarm water rather than scrubbing the fibers of your gown. Soaking allows stains to gently lift out of the gown without damaging or fraying the fabric.
Determine your Fabric Type – The main question here is silk or non-silk. Non-silk wedding gowns have a much higher threshold for cleaning solvents. As long as your wedding dress has simply yellowed and doesn’t have deep-set brown to black spot staining, you may be able to restore your gown yourself. Silk is a much different story. Also keep in mind that while topical type stains such as lipstick are easier to remove, deep set stains such as body oils or wine are best left to the professionals.
Use Caution with that Iron – Ironing your dress can get you into a sticky situation – quite literally! If delicate fabrics are sticking to your iron, it’s time to turn the iron down, or better yet, turn it off. First you should try running your bathroom shower as hot as it will go for around a half hour with your dress hanging on the back of the door. Sometimes a bit of a steam bath is enough to allow stubborn creases to fall away.
How Your Yellowed Wedding Dress can be Fixed and Professionally Whitened
The process created by the Wedding Gown Preservation Company is of the most thorough and comprehensive of any textile restoration company you’ll be likely to find. Their team of wedding gown cleaning experts focus on one thing and one thing only – removing stains from your dress and transforming your gown to be as brilliant and vibrant as the day you first fell in love with it at the boutique.
The Process Begins with a Full Assessment of Each Gown:
Fabric Identification – in this step the fibers of your wedding dress are identified so it can be assessed as to how your dress will react to various cleaning methods. While the tag on your wedding dress many times will identify the various fabrics, the fabrics in older gowns more often than not will need to be identified using other various methods developed by the experienced team of in-house fabric experts.
Fiber Evaluation – Just as important as what types of fabrics your dress is comprised of is what type of condition those fibers are in. For example, many times a gown with a “French Bustle” can suffer from having a car door accidently slammed onto it or become damaged and frayed from being dragged along a rough surface such as an asphalt driveway.
Stain Evaluation – Deep set wedding dress stains require careful consideration. If fabric oxidation or decay is too advanced, treating the stain aggressively can do more damage. Each stain on your gown is marked and notes are made on how best to proceed with spot treatment along with a stain grading score. If the experts feel that your gown is too damaged to proceed, the team will call you to review our full assessment and determine together how best to proceed.
The SYSTEMK4 Wedding Dress Cleaning Process
Our wedding gown cleaning process consists of the world’s most advanced cleaning system combined with natural cleaning formulas passed down by generations of professional fabric cleaners. The system that is used to clean your dress is a German born cleaning system called SYSTEMK4. This three part cleaning process is safe for the environment, safe for the fibers of your wedding dress, and aggressive on stains and yellowed fabrics.
The three parts consist of a gentle dry cleaning, spot stain removal, soaking, and a post treatment that protects your weddign dress from yellowing in the future and protects the gown if it is worn again. This amazing system was utilized in all the before and after photos you see throughout this post.
View Amazing Yellowed Wedding Dress Transformations
Common Questions on How to Fix a Yellowed Wedding Dress
In the rare event your wedding dress cannot be restored to white during the restoration process, you will be notified of the condition of your dress and the processes that were used. In general, your dress will be processed up to three times, however, after the third time, you’ll run the risk of fabric damage due to overprocessing. Wedding dresses that run this risk are in many cases over 75 years old and were not stored properly over the years. We find that our customers are extremely pleased with the results even if we were unable to remove 100% of yellowing in a vintage wedding dress.
Phenolic yellowing is when exposure to chemicals commonly found in plastics lead to fabric yellowing where they come into contact with each other. Both polyethylene and polypropylene garment bags are known to cause phenolic yellowing. To ensure your wedding dress isn’t subjected to phenolic yellowing, it is best to store it in a proper wedding dress storage box or have it professionally cleaned and preserved.
Wedding dresses that were originally yellow should never attempt to be bleached white. Bleach is a very damaging chemical for the delicate fabrics found in a wedding dress and attempting to bleach fabric that was originally dyed yellow will most certainly have a disastrous outcome.
We’ve helped thousands of brides restore fix their faded ivory wedding dresses back to their original brilliance. Since ivory is the second most popular wedding dress color behind white, we’ve perfected the skill of fixing and restoring ivory-colored fabrics back to their original beautiful ivory color. Ivory wedding dresses tend to appear yellow faster than white wedding dresses due to the dye pigmentation found in ivory-colored fabrics, however, the results of our fabric restoration process are just as effective.
The cost of wedding dress dry cleaning services to return a wedding dress back to its original white color and preserving it so it won’t yellow again can vary greatly from company to company. We’ve successfully restored the most wedding dresses of any company in the nation and our cost for yellowed wedding dress cleaning is under $400 depending on your chosen options. Other wedding gown cleaning companies without the equipment and highly trained staff may charge upwards of $800+.
While it may be tempting to pull out your phone and search for “Wedding dress cleaning and preservation near me”, you’ll want to first do you own research. We’ve had countless of stressed out brides e-mail our preservation team asking if their wedding dress can be fixed after taking it to their local dry cleaner. While many send your dress away for online wedding dress cleaning and preservation, more inexperienced dry cleaners will attempt the process and neglect to identify the fabrics of the dress so they can be treated properly.
The majority of the staining on your wedding gown is invisible to the naked eye. Your dress may look great now, but in 5, 10, or 20 years from now those invisible sweat stains or sugar stains will be big, ugly, brown splotches that continuously eat away at the chemical composition of the fabrics in your gown. The only way to truly be sure your gown won’t suffer from yellowing or spot-staining is to have your wedding dress cleaned and preserved before putting it into storage.
Yes, your wedding veil is one of five items you can include to be cleaned and preserved at no additional cost to you with our current promotion. Yellowed wedding veils can be whitened, however, due to their delicate nature should be handled with the utmost care. We have over 100 years of experience in whitening yellowed wedding veils, and we can even display it along side your preserved wedding dress in the viewing window of your Wedding Gown Preservation Chest.
Proper Storage to Prevent Future Yellowing or Damage
Once your wedding dress is professionally restored and all staining and yellowing removed, it’s important to properly store your wedding dress to avoid any future yellowing. Here are some important tips:
- Choose a cool, dark place away from light, extreme heat, and humidity is ideal. Storing your preserved dress in an interior closet or under your bed works best.Remember, if you’re comfortable in a part of your home, your dress will be too.
- Never remove your wedding dress from the display chest.Doing so will expose the fabric to contaminates that cause oxidation such as dirt, dust, bodily oils from your hands, and more.
- Never store your storage chest in a plastic bag, which will cause condensation and traps moisture.
- Check on your wedding dress every 6-12 months. If any yellowing should appear, we have a 100-year guarantee against future yellowing and we will process your dress free of charge.
Fix Your Yellowed Wedding Dress Today
So… how do you proceed with transforming your gown from dull and yellow to amazing and brilliant? If your wedding dress is more than 15 years old or has yellowed substantially, it’s best to purchase our Wedding Gown Restoration Kit. If your wedding dress is only slightly yellowed and was originally worn less than 15 years ago, you can choose our Celebrity Wedding Gown Preservation Kit™ or our Traditional Wedding Gown Preservation Kit™. Knowing your cherished wedding dress is the hands of experienced professionals will give you peace of mind, along with our 100-year anti-yellowing guarantee.
