Our Restoration Process

What Does “Fully Restored” Mean?

One of the questions we’re asked most often is, “What exactly does fully restored mean?”

Our vintage pieces have stories to tell. They’ve been worn, loved, packed away, and passed through decades of changing hands—and with that history often comes the occasional mark of time.

When a piece arrives at Moonlight, the restoration process begins with a thorough inspection. We look for stains, tears, weakened seams, missing beadwork, damaged zippers, and anything else that may need attention. Each piece is then carefully cleaned by hand before being inspected all over again.

From there, we test the strength of the fabric and stitching, check closures and zippers, and identify any repairs needed to bring the piece back to life.

Every repair is done in-house by the owner. Whenever possible, we use materials appropriate to the era of the garment. Missing buttons are replaced, small holes are carefully mended, beadwork is secured or recreated, and damaged trims are repaired with the goal of preserving the original character of the piece.

And sometimes, despite our best efforts, a vintage piece simply isn't able to survive the cleaning and restoration process. We don't consider that the end of its story.

Instead, we carefully harvest what we can—buttons, beads, zippers, trims, and other usable details—to restore another vintage piece. In this way, even the pieces that can't be saved in their original form can continue to be part of preserving vintage clothing.

To us, restoration is about more than making something look beautiful again. It's about preservation.It's about giving these garments another chance to be worn, loved, and appreciated while keeping them out of landfills.

Every piece that leaves Moonlight has been given a little more time—and hopefully, a whole new chapter.