ST. CLAIRSVILLE — It’s deep in the heart of prom season, spring weddings are looming, and Carol Barlow’s downtown Custom Fashions is aflutter with bits of whisper-thin mesh, lace and yards of silk that rustle at every touch.

And, don’t forget the sequins. They are everywhere.

Barlow, who’s been altering clothing casually for 40 years and specializing professionally in formalwear for about four, said they are particularly plentiful on this year’s crop of prom formals. It’s the same for glitter and the kind of plunging necklines that would have horrified her mother back in the day.

“I can remember going wedding dress shopping with my mother, my very conservative mother,” Barlow said, grinning at the memory of the puffed-sleeve delight that captured her fancy. “My dress had a high neck but there was a V-shaped cut out under that.

“‘That’s kind of low,'” she remembers her mother saying. Her grandmother, who was paying for the dress, saved the day by ordering the frock on the spot. “Nobody argued with grandma.”

The necklines may be deeper still now, but little else has changed, she noted. Moms, grandmas, friends and whoever still comes in for prom and bridal fittings — continue to be full of ideas and opinions. Having seen a few brides in tears even before a fitting session started, Barlow has developed a few ground rules.

No group fittings for bridal parties. Snarkiness tends to ensue. And, clients and whatever posse they have assembled must keep it real. Altering formalwear is as much about engineering as it is about any dream dress, Barlow acknowledged.

(She also doesn’t work with leather as the original stitches tend to leave visible holes. Fur is out as it creates a mess and the shop needs to remain very clean — and scent free — given the type of clothing they are handling.)

“If I sense that there’s something amiss, I have learned to say, ‘I don’t think I’m a good fit for you,'” the former nurse said of feeling especially free in letting clients go given the abundance of available work. “People skills are a big factor.”

SKILL FACTOR

Sewing skill tops the list, however. Working with the slippery fabrics and volume of formalwear is no joke.

Barlow began sewing as a child, informing what would later become a second career from one grandmother who made clothes and another who pieced and sewed quilts by hand. As her initial work life was drawing to a close, she did some alterations to help out a friend and realized that there was a high regional need for a seamstress who could reshape gowns.

Custom Fashions was born in 2019 and now employs one other experienced seamstress and an apprentice who hails from Pittsburgh.

The variable shape of human bodies is what drives the need for alterations, Barlow said. Off-the-rack gowns are often too big or too small for various parts of the body — and given the investment and celebration level that comes with such attire, a better fit is often desired.

Reducing the size or length of a garment is more straightforward — although technically difficult. But, Barlow has also learned such skills — such as making a too-small bodice notably larger.

She sometimes alters a back that can’t quite zip up into a ribbon-laced corset panel — thereby adding extra space. Other times, she might open up the sides of a gown and add a flesh-colored mesh inset that can be visually unified with the rest of the bodice with lace appliques.

Barlow said the latter technique recently saved the day when a girl who attended a Christian school wanted a high slit on her prom gown filled in. The slit design was too open to simply sew it shut. So, Barlow installed a pleated panel that peeked out of it like a fun and flirty underskirt.

“We add or replace a lot of straps,” Barlow added, noting spaghetti straps are frequently swapped for something more substantial lest they dig into the shoulders.

SOMETHING OLD,

SOMETHING NEW

The majority of dresses that Barlow reshapes are new. But, vintage dresses often enter the mix, particularly when it comes to weddings. Some wildly creative outcomes can result, she said.

One recent bride opted to turn her mother’s high-poof wedding gown into a knee-length dress to be worn at her own bridal shower. On the shorter dress, a bow big enough to cover the younger woman’s entire backside looked more playful than dated. Such dress redos are also popular for rehearsal dinners, Barlow noted.

Alternatively, some brides now embrace using elements of a family wedding gown in a fresh way. Barlow sometimes removes lace appliques from the original gown and attaches them to dramatic capes that are worn during certain points of the wedding of the day.

There are limits to such second acts, however, Barlow said.

“One bride wanted the top of one gown attached to the bottom of another gown and they were different sizes,” she said of a project on which she decided to pass. S

uch an alteration would have been so time consuming, it would not have been affordable.

That said, Barlow added there is always a way to include a special family gown in a new wedding. Sometimes, pieces of the original gown are made into a runner for the main table at the reception.

Other times, an embroidered patch that can include anything from a poem to dates of a wedding are worked into the new gown in some way.

“Depending on the dress, there’s a lot of things you can do.”