Reinventing the Wedding Dress

Wedding gowns, bridesmaid dresses and other sentimental formal wear can remind people of special times in their lives—although that’s a little hard to do from the back of a closet.

Sure, women can search for that occasion on which wearing the old bridesmaid dress is appropriate, or hope that someday a daughter might want to walk down the aisle in the same gown as her mom.

But, as women gathered in a Hillsborough home Sunday learned, there’s another option.

Old new borrowed redo is a San Diego-based company that takes dresses and turns them into sentimental keepsakes, such as pillows, picture frames and blankets.

Lindsey Manroel Radoff and her sister, Jennifer Manroel, started the company in 2011 shortly after Manroel Radoff’s wedding. She knew she wanted to make pillows using her wedding dress, and while on her honeymoon, she came up with the idea of providing the same service to other women.

“[They’re] these custom keepsakes that are sentimental and a way to pass these dresses down,” Manroel Radoff said. “We have gotten a lot of support from customers in the Bay Area...it seemed like a natural setting to come up to the Bay Area and host our first event.”

During the private event, women were able to bring dresses in for consultation, normally a process done via email and shipping the dress to San Diego. From there, the design team creates sketches of the desired keepsake and, once the client gives the green light, the product takes about four to six weeks to complete.

“We like to think that our process is so easy that anyone…is able to utilize our service,” said Manroel Radoff.

She said they planned the Hillsborough event as a way for women to get together and learn about the possibilities for their dresses and see finished products from current customers.

The most popular trend now is taking a bridesmaid dress, turning it into a baby blanket and re-gifting it to the bride for her first child. Pillows and pictures frames are popular, as well, but the team gets requests for all kinds of keepsakes.

“We had a customer who took the wedding dress that she wore in her wedding in the 70s…and made four ring bearer pillows that she’s going to pass to her granddaughters,” she said. “These dresses no longer need to be one-time dresses.”

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