I just returned from fulfilling a typical bridesmaid duty of assisting the bride-to-be during her alterations.  After six months of waiting, her dress had arrived and needed to be fitted.  My friend, like many other brides, hadn’t thought about how to bustle.  Her dress is a unique style.  It’s fitted throughout the bodice, hugs the hips and then flows out with over six layers of silk.  When the seamstress attempted to put in a typical “French bustle” it didn’t look quite right.  The French bustle is the most traditional style, also called an under bustle, as the fabric is pulled underneath.  In my friend’s case it seemed as if there was a lot of fabric shoved under her knees.  In addition, the final top layer of her dress is a beautiful flowy chiffon, and the inverted style of bustle stopped the flow.  I remembered seeing a dress with the bustle over the top instead of underneath, and asked if that would be possible.  This is less tradtional, which is odd since it’s often called an American bustle or over bustle.  Many ballroom style wedding gowns have an over bustle rather than the under bustle.  In my friend’s case it was a multi-national event; the bottom layers were best pulled underneath into a French bustle, and the top chiffon layer, pinned up on top a la American.  It looked beautiful and matched the design of the dress.  Luckily we had a wonderful seamstress who was willing to experiment and had worked on hundreds of dresses.

Tips for getting the perfect bustle for your gown

1. Pick a great seamstress

This is essential, a seasoned seamstress will have seen a million gowns before and will be willing to try a couple of different styles for you before deciding on one.  He or she will also have the skill for more challenging gowns.

2. Experiment!

If you’re not satisfied with the way your bustle looks ask the seamstress to try it another way.  It’s relatively easy to pin up.  Some dresses need dozens of bustle points to achieve the perfect look. (Bustle points are usually the ribbons attached to the dress that allow you to hoist the fabric up when tied together).

3. Bring along a friend or family member who’ll be attending the wedding

If you do decide on 12 points you’ll want someone who will remember how to assemble the bustle of your dreams.  Also, they’ll be able to give you their opinion and take pictures so that you can see how it looks for yourself. 

So you have your dress, and it’s been altered to fit the body you’ve been working out for the past 6 months; how do you take care of it in the short time before your wedding?  Normally dresses come in a dress bag that’s breathable, if so, it can hang in that for a while.  If it didn’t come with a breathable bag then you can either buy one or loosely drape a clean white sheet around the hanging dress to keep off any dust and to protect it.  A plastic dress bag that is not breathable could allow mold or discoloration so be sure not to use one.  Also, always be sure that your dress is hanging by the straps attached to the inside.

The Steaming of the Dress:  A good dry cleaner will gently steam or press (depending on the fabric) your dress and then stuff the inside with hundreds of sheets of tissue paper.  Every detail and bow will be exactly in position with the tissue paper behind it.  The dress will literally be able to stand on its own!  It’ll be perfect until the wedding day.  The easiset way to transport it is with an empty backseat; you can simply lay it across. 

Typically dresses are shipped from the manufacturers in small boxes that cause wrinkles.  If you’re getting married in the town where you purchased the dress, the dress shop will probably take care of getting the dress pressed or steamed for you (most likely for an additional cost).  If you are travelling, I recommend having the dress shop ship it overnight (in advance) and have it steamed in your wedding location.  If you don’t want to let the dress out of your sight, you can try to fly with it, but whatever you do: DON’T CHECK IT! 

If you or your wedding is located in Los Angeles, I recommend Brown’s Cleaners.  They are located in Santa Monica on 1223 Montana Ave.  They are used to handling unique gowns and dresses and will expertly smooth and pack yours up for you.  Make sure that they will have time for your dress, as once they fill up for the weekend’s weddings and red carpet events they won’t be able to fit your dress in!