HALLIE EPHRON: I'm sharing what it was like "Growing Up Ephron" in the March issue of The Oprah Magazine. The theme for this issue is "De-clutter Your Life" -- something I should certainly do. They asked some fun questions for their contributors page (cleverly titled "Trash Talk"). Here's one of my answers:
The one thing I regret tossing is... my wedding dress. It was lace, with an Empire waist and bell sleeves, but it had a stain so I got rid of it. I wish I'd kept it and turned it into a cute little pillow.
Wouldn't you know, no sooner is the magazine on the stands then I get an email, subject line: Your wedding dress WOULD have made a great pillow!!!!
The message came from Lindsey Radoff and Jennifer Manroel, the talented twins behind OLD NEW BORROWED REDO. They make keepsakes out of those garments that you don't wear but can't bear to throw away. So I invited them over to tell us what they're up to.
Which of you came up with the idea for ONBR and did you have to do a lot of strong-arming to get the other to go along?
LINDSEY RADOFF: I had been talking about how I wanted to make throw pillows from my gown and I was always got the same response: “Great idea, but you’ll never do it.” Then when I was honeymooning in Maui, we were on a hike and this little idea developed into an idea for a business.
JENNIFER MANROEL: When Lindsey told me about this idea and instantly I was on board. HALLIE: What's the most unique request you've ever had?
JENNIFER: Making a baby blanket out of scraps from a bridesmaid dress. One of our customers mailed us the scraps in a manila envelope! We weren’t sure if we even had enough fabric for a baby blanket. We used fabric as the nameplate to embroider Makayla, the baby’s name and date of birth.
HALLIE: Your biggest, most complicated project?LINDSEY: Most of our REDOs are from wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses, but we also redo T-shirts into throw blankets. One of our customers was a huge San Diego Padres and Chargers fan so we took his t-shirts and also made a quilt. The blankets range in size and can incorporate anywhere from fifteen t-shirts, up to thirty t-shirts.
JENNIFER: What better way to surprise your husband on a one-year anniversary than repurpose your wedding gown into lingerie!HALLIE: You are identical twins, which is like siblings squared. How do you divide the work and deal with the inevitable rivalry?
LINDSEY: We are definitely siblings squared! We look a lot alike and we do practically EVERYTHING together!
Jen is better at designing the keepsakes whereas I have a better eye at pairing new fabrics to match well with the dress. Jen is very organized - in fact, she can't leave our office without making sure everything is neatly put away. So she handles a lot of the day-to-day activity for the company. I am much better with numbers so I handle the financials.
JENNIFER: I love designing pillows and picture frames and Lindsey loves baby blankets and t-shirt quilts. HALLIE: Tell us about the “green” in your business.
LINDSEY: We are very eco-friendly. We pride ourselves in the fact that we work with existing dresses and clothing, and we reuse them and repurpose them into keepsakes. These “one-time wear” dresses are no longer just sitting in our closets; rather, we’re giving customers a way to recycle their dresses and redo them into keepsakes that can be displayed in their homes.
HALLIE: And keep all those good memories alive. We wish you the best! Visit their store and workroom at http://oldnewborrowedredo.com/.
Do you have save your favorite garments even if you can't wear them? Or are you like me and toss them out blithely, only to wish you hadn't?
Lucky EDITH! You are the winner of Deborah Crombie's THE SOUND OF BROKEN GLASS. Email Debs with your mailing address (deb at deborahcrombie dot com)
