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1 ighter-weave fabrics support themselves better than loosely-woven materials, she says, and silk is the strongest natural fiber.
“We have 18th-century silk fabrics that have done wonderfully well,” Willman says. Nineteenthcentury silks, however, were often treated with a finish called ‘weighting’ to add body to the fibers. Some of the material now reacts with atmospheric pollutants that cause the fabric to shred as though clawed by a cat, she says.
Unpreserved laces hold up the worst of any bridal gown materials, Saidman says, because they become dry and fall apart. Satin tends to last well unpreserved, he says, but silk taffetas ages poorly, and chiffons fall apart.
“Silk tulle does not hold up very well, often because there's a lot of sizing agent that’s put on it and it oxidizes; the whole thing just crumbles away,” Willman says.
“You get problems with the finishes put on fabrics; whether a fabric's dyed or not can contribute to its degradation,” Willman says.
“My all-time least favorite fabric is black silk tulle, because the black dye is also usually a detriment as well,” she says, citing an iron component in the dye that erodes the material. She has seen cotton prints in which the pattern is literally cut away, stencil-fashion, wherever the black dye originally appeared.
Ornamentation on the fabric can also jeopardize the fibers, Willman says. Heavy embroidery on a lightweight fabric can pull at the material
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