Antique Vestment Restorations by Atelier Sirio

Vestments, like anything else, are subject to become dirtied from dust, oils and other substances, but worse yet, whether through age or improper storage,  they can also have more significant damages such as threading. When this happens, it is easy to think the vestment is unsalvageable, but in reality, there are restorative options that can be undertaken with the proper expertise. 

Atelier Sirio, based out of Bergamo, Italy, is a company which both creates new vestments, but they also have an entire department dedicated specfically to vestment restoration works.  This type of work makes for an spin on our usual "before and after" considerations.

In this particular case we are looking at an eighteenth century chasuble that is made from a beige sating with metallic and polychrome silk embroidery.  Unfortunately the chasuble had become quite dirtied and, worse yet, you can see here some of the substantial damages to the main fabric:

As part of their work, Atelier Sirio performs an analysis of the vestment, looking at areas of wear (abrasioni) and outright tears (tagli).  The follow diagrams show the before state of the chasuble, and their analysis of the damages on both the front and back.

BEFORE:

With their expertise, they are able to subtly repair these damages in such a way as to conceal that these damages ever existed, To give you a sense here are some before and after photos of some specific areas of damage.

BEFORE / AFTER:

BEFORE / AFTER:

In addition to these more significant reparative works, Atelier Sirio can and does also clean vestments such as these from centuries worth of accumulated dirt and grime:

Embroideries are also patched up:

The end result is a chasuble that has been restored more closely to how it would have appeared when it was created more than 200 years ago:

If this is a service you'd be interested in investigating, Atelier Sirio is a company you may wish to engage.

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