apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

My sister is the activities director at a nursing home, and she buys vintage party dresses and purses to decorate one of the walls with. The old folks love them.

I really love this. I've seen it done on Clean House before too. They hung some beautiful kimonos up as art. Looked great.

They do this with kimono's in Japan all the time.

Beautiful.

There is a right way to do this kind of thing, and a wrong way -- Maya's execution is perfect.

The dress is nice, but at first glance it would look like a hovering ghost over the bed every time you walked into the room. Plus, it's a dust catcher.

nice idea, but my dust allergies would go nuts

I may do this with my Snuggie.

I love kimonos on a wall but anything else would have to be very special---as I am sure this dress is to her.
I think cassielynn's sister has a fun idea for the people in the nursing home.

I've seen this done with kimonos, too, and it is very striking. When I first saw the picture, I wondered why she would hang some random dress on her wall. But then I read the post and learned that it was her wedding dress and probably special to her. So, sure, it's cool.

Just a couple of pointers on displaying clothes:

*Make sure the garment will not be exposed to direct sunlight - and, in a sunny climate, PLEASE make sure it won't get a lot of indirect sunlight either. Even small amounts of regular sunlight can cause severe discoloration and other damage.

*PLEASE resist the urge to hang beaded or sequined garments for long periods of time. Those little embellishments may seem like nothing, but they can and do weigh down the embellished areas of a garment, which can cause pulling, stretching, and sagging over time. In fact, museums with fashion collections usually don't display beaded garments (like those 1920s flapper dresses) for more than a couple of months at a time, and store them flat when they are not displayed.