First, have that beaded chiffon and satin dress cleaned, even if you don't see any stains. Make sure your dry cleaner pre-treats the underarms well. Before taking it to the cleaner, try to separate the chiffon from the satin, if you can, so you can see through the chiffon. Hold it up to light and check for stains. Most stains are absorbed into the chiffon layer and are not always visible on the satin beneath it.

After cleaning, you have several choices:

• It's common for people to redesign a special event dress so it can be used for a regular night out. We have excellent specialists who can do that type of alteration for you.
• You could also have it "heirloomed" and stored in an archival-quality acid free box. Margaret's can do this for you too. Store the box in a dry area.

The short answer is "YES". but there is a lot of information we need before we can say that with any certainty. In some cirecumstances the only safe option will be spot clean or to "freshen up" the garment. That said, Margaret's has the skill and expertise to know how to handle virtually anything. With today's smart phones we can exchange informaition in real time using Face Time or texted photos which will allow us the ability to answer that question from anywhere. You will find an estimate form for specialty items on our website which allows you to upload photos of the garment.

That glitter shell requires special care. You can tumble the pieces in the dryer (preferably in a mesh net), but be careful--if you have dangling metal clasps or fragile buttons they may need to be removed. This will shake loose some of the extra glitter. You could also use a blow dryer. When it's time to have the garment cleaned, look for a Hydrocarbon cleaner to minimize permanent loss of glitter and ask that they "short run" the garment. Falling glitter is a long term problem that will improve with each cleaning or tumbling, but will rarely disappear completely.

Let's get technical here. STAINS are permanent and in some cases can be lightened or improved. SPOTS normally can be removed. We tell every customer "if you are not 100% sure you can remove that spot, DO NOTHING and get it to us as soon as possible" otherwise you'll turn that spot into a stain!