Visual Compensation, ca. 1865 Evening Dress

Conservation dyeing and painted overlay for a ca. 1865 evening dress which was used as a rotation object in The Costume Institute's spring 2026 show, Costume Art.

The dress had disfiguring stains on the sheer, reflective overlay skirt. Localized cleaning using deionized water, Orvus solutions, mechanical action with a cotton swab, and solvents were found ineffective, so an overlay was chosen to allow the dress to be displayed without distracting stains.

A close color match Lanaset dye recipe was found, which was then adjusted to better match the color of the dress. Four iterations of the dye recipe were made, in varying shades of warmth and depth. All four of these shades were used as a palette, applying layers of silk crepe line over the stain to obscure it.

A silk satin ribbon was painted using Dye-Na-Flow paints to disguise the iron stain on the ribbon.