A quick way to apply the National Park Service’s textile guidance to a costume or vintage piece you own: should it hang, lie flat, or go in a box?
Verdict
How to do it
Any storage: 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, relative humidity as close to 50 percent as possible (under 35 percent can embrittle textiles), no more than 50 lux of light with ultraviolet filtered, and no big swings.
Caring for Costumes and Vintage Garments →Buying Vintage Clothing and Costumes in LA →How a Film Costume Is Made →Where to See Film Costumes in Los Angeles →
General guidance based on the National Park Service Museum Handbook. It cannot see your garment: for a valuable, fragile or weighted-silk piece, ask a textile conservator before you clean or store it. More in Buying Vintage Clothing and Costumes in LA: How to Inspect, What the Labels Tell You, and What to Avoid.
Where the answers come from
The check follows Appendix K of the National Park Service Museum Handbook, which covers textiles and costumes. Before hanging a garment, the handbook asks whether the shoulder seams are strong and intact, whether the fabric in the hanging area is free of splits and holes, whether the waistline can support itself, and, if not, whether waist tapes can support it. If any answer is no, the garment should be stored flat.
The handbook names the pieces that belong flat regardless: fragile costumes and garments weak at the shoulders, breeches and pants, dresses with fragile waistlines, skirts, heavily beaded costumes and bias-cut garments. Unconstructed clothing such as kimonos goes flat or with minimal folding in an archival box.
For hats and pieces made with fur, feathers or other parts of birds and animals, the handbook warns about pesticide residues, including arsenic, and says skins prepared before the mid-1980s should be tested. The full guide, with light, pests and cleaning, is Caring for Costumes and Vintage Garments: Storage, Light, Pests and Handling.