Vintage Expert | Amanda at Salvato Collection
Apr 4, 2014 | by Becky Oeltjenbruns
Image from Salvato Colleciton
One of our favorite things about vintage is its power to capture any mood flawlessly. If you’re preparing for a meeting and want a powerful foundation: grab a beautifully tailored look from the 1940s (channel a bit of Katharine Hepburn), if you want to transport yourself to a field of flowers and sunshine: put on a flowing 1970s maxi dress, and if you want to portray your romantic and girly side: check out Salvato Collection.
We recently had the opportunity to chat with Salvato Collection’s vintage expert (and founder) Amanda. She shared her passion with us, gave us great advice on locating a quality dry cleaner, and shed some light on the mystery of finding your perfect vintage size. Read along as we introduce our newest vintage expert, and as always, let us know what you’re thinking in the comments!
Amanda with Salvato Collection
Salvato Collection
West Bridgewater, Massachusetts
Salvato Collection will soon offer an expanded selection of vintage glasses and luxury perfumes as well, so check out their site for new ways to enhance your retro look!
Amanda shares with us what drew her to vintage: I fell in love with the quietness of leaving a busy world and going someplace quirky.
Discover more vintage inspiration on the Salvato Collection Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest pages.
What guests experience at Salvato Collection
Salvato Collection was established in 2011 and is guided by a deep devotion to and respect for vintage. The shop prides itself on learning the personal history of their items and values building relationships with clients. Each guest can expect to find a trustworthy and fun place to buy vintage clothing and accessories. The inventory focuses on “over the top” feminine and lacy pieces. (Items from the Victorian era specifically captivate and influence the Salvato style.) Amanda wants each purchase to empower their owner. As she shares, the perfect piece should “create an entire sensation when you wear it.”
Image from Salvato Collection
Each item is handpicked by the style team. Their focus is on quality construction, rich materials, and investment pieces. From the moment it comes into the collection, each item is given a lot of attention from restoration to photography – every detail is considered. Their ultimate goal is to let each article shine and be the head turning wow factor it’s meant to be.
Some vintage pieces come through the door needing additional tender loving care. For these things that need a second shot at life, Salvato Collection created the Handmade From Vintage line. Items in this category are restored by hand and transformed into a unique wardrobe staple.
There is a common thread that weaves through all aspects of the Salvato Collection experience: passion for getting it right. Amanda describes her bottom line as follows: “Every email counts. Every person counts. Every experience matters.”
How to find a good dry cleaner for vintage
Amanda is an expert on finding trusted dry cleaners; she spent the better part of a year identifying the perfect match for the Salvato Collection’s delicate items. It’s important to personally meet with each cleaner and ask if they have experience with vintage clothing. This is the number one question to answer as you investigate companies, however Amanda says a close second is to determine if they do organic dry cleaning. An organic approach is much more gentle and therefore better suited for retro items.
Image from Salvato Collection
Once you find an organic cleaner, you will want to further ask if they clean clothing in their shop or if they send it out. In Amanda’s personal experience, it’s best to find someone that does everything on site as they will follow through on your detailed requests. Keep in mind that patience is key. An organic process may take longer and you may have additional charges as a result, but your clothing will come back without any chemical aromas and looking wonderful!
An expert organic dry cleaning tip: A natural approach may take more time to remove stains than its traditional counterpart, but the end result will be a fully restored piece that is blemish-free. Due to this process, you will want to wait a couple days in between treatments to see if the stain rises. Ask your cleaner to re-examine the clothing and if the spot returns, verify that they include a secondary removal treatment.
What does organic dry cleaning mean?
Like many things labeled natural, there are a lot of scams and schemes out there. It’s best to be an informed consumer so we’ll provide a brief synopsis. Traditional dry cleaning involves the use of the dangerous chemical perchloroethylene (or perc to its friends). Therefore, in theory, organic techniques are ones that remove perc from the process. It’s important to note that the term “organic dry cleaning” is not regulated by the FDA (thus the scams). When someone says “organic dry cleaning” they are typically referring to three different approaches: the patented Green Earth Cleaning method, CO2 cleaning, and lastly hydrocarbon cleaning.
Image from Salvato Collection
Green Earth Cleaning, created by Dow Corning, uses the D-5 chemical. It’s a silicone-based element and while it’s not toxic, some preliminary studies identify it as a carcinogen. This is a pretty expensive solution and may be out of reach for most local shops.
CO2 cleaning is the new kid on the block and to picture how it works it’s helpful to think of carbonated bubbles. Firstly, by adding pressure the CO2 gets converted from gas into liquid form. This liquid is used to clean the clothes in a very precise way: the machine’s speed of rotation is monitored and the water temperature is carefully controlled. (Most experts say a wet clean is the best for clothes as it will not leave a residue on the fabric.) Once the cycle is complete, the liquid gets either released or transformed back to gas for reuse. The small amount that is reintroduced to the atmosphere is not considered a threat to global warming.
Hydrocarbon cleaning is the trio’s sneaky devil. It is not really green, just a switch from perc to some other slightly less toxic element. In addition to not really offering a better solution, clothes laundered in this way typically come back with a strange and lasting odor.
In summary, the range from most dangerous to greenest goes as such: traditional dry cleaning, hydrocarbon cleaning, Green Earth Cleaning (because of the potential carcinogen), and lastly CO2 cleaning. Building on Amanda’s excellent tips above, you can start to identify which cleaners in your area really offer an environmentally-friendly process.
How to determine your vintage size
Amanda says the first thing to keep in mind with vintage sizing: don’t be shocked by the numbers. You may see a larger size listed on a vintage label, but when it’s measured it aligns with a smaller, modern size. (For example: a retro size 12 might fit a modern size 8.) When it comes to measuring yourself for retro clothing, use a cloth measuring tape, as the fabric makes for a more realistic result.
Image from Salvato Collection
Reference the Salvato Collection measurement guide for handy descriptions and additional tips. If you aren’t comfortable with measuring yourself, another approach is to use clothes you already have. Be sure to find something in a similar style to what you’re considering, lay the article flat, and measure.
The pieces found at Salvato Collection are measured flat, rather than taken from a model wearing the item. Determine how other online shops arrive at their dimensions and keep that in mind as you look for other pieces you want to add to your wardrobe. Amanda’s top advice: if you can’t try on an item, always buy a couple inches larger than you think you may need. Remember that a tailor can inexpensively take something in for you to create the perfect fit.
Cause A Frockus would like to thank their tremendous resources: Amanda with Salvato Collection,
The Green Life Online, NY Sun, and Green America.
For our readers: Amanda loves the stories behind her vintage offerings – do you share her passion for learning about the legend of each piece? Have you found a great dry cleaner in your area? Tell us all about it in the comments!
Thank you for such an amazing article!! Xo
Our pleasure! 🙂