How do I clean and repair a soiled old silk kimono?

The kimono is very delicate cream/oyster silk, with pale mauve embroidery - badly faded - depicting wisteria. The hem is very damaged and disintegrating. It appears to be padded with some sort of wadding, probably cotton.





No clear evidence on age of kimono. It was found in a loft with some other clothes, which are clearly Victorian. I suspect the kimono is from 1020's - 1930's.





There are yellow stains on several areas, especially around the neck.





I would like to know how to clean the stains and restore the damage. I intend to display the kimono on the wall.

How do I clean and repair a soiled old silk kimono?
Good kimonos like the one you are talking about are always hand sewn. Traditionally the outer layer of the kimono is made from a single bolt of fabric. The lining and additional layer and or padding are made of different kinds of silk dye different colors.





To prevent the colors from running on to each other and the seams from puckering, the kimono is taken completely apart the piece are basted back together like the original bolt of fabric and cleaned separately, then un-basted and re-sewn.





An additional advantage to this is if you gain or lost a little weight the kimono can be adjusted at this time. Also if there are spots on the silk that didn’t come out in cleaning the area can be re-dyed, or sometimes a pattern is embroidered or dyed over the area to disguise the stain. As you can guess this is expensive and isn’t done every time you wear it. Also the only cleaners I know of that do this work are in Japan.





What worries me is the fact the silk is already disintegrating. Dry-cleaning could cause a lot more damage at this point. Stains that have set that long in silk probably wouldn’t come out any way. My advice is unless you can have it professionally restored and it doesn’t smell of mildew, don’t clean it. Enjoy it in the patina of age it has earned.





To prevent any further damage, never store it in plastic, wrap it in washi paper or clean white cotton when storing it, hang in a smoke free, cooking grease and odor free area, cover the rod that you use to hang it from with padded white cotton or silk to prevent crease along the top and from possible color transfer. A mothball or two wrapped in silk or cotton could be put in each sleeve to ward away moths. Also beware house dust will settle along the top of the shoulder and sleeve when it hangs, some people will lay a bit of white cotton or silk over this area to keep it clean.
Reply:I would take it to a trusted dry cleaners, they would know how to fix and clean it