On The Repair Shop, expert Rebecca Bissonnet delivered a 'realistic' blow to a grieving guest's hopes for his late sister's dress. During the episode, which first aired last year, Dominic Chinea and Rebecca met Ben, the first visitor to the workshop, who brought a torn and tattered lace dress that had belonged to his sister, Lizzie.
Ben admitted he wasn't sure when his sibling first acquired the dress, estimating it was around 40 years earlier. He shared that Lizzie was a fantastic artist, and the dress had been part of her life journey over four decades, now in a sorry state. He explained it was a skirt, but Lizzie always called it 'the dress', painted through the late 80s and 90s, with a final painting completed in 2007.
Ben's story of his sister's transition
Dom noted it was interesting to paint a dress as a subject for so long, and Ben then revealed that his sister had been born a man and was male for 35 years before transitioning. He detailed that Lizzie went to university, studied fine art, had a partner, and had a daughter named Ellie in 1980, but a growing question about her gender and fluidity lingered in her mind. Lizzie began transitioning more in the 1980s, gaining confidence and assertiveness about her desire to transition fully.
Ben explained that initially, when Lizzie told him about the transition, he was shocked and surprised, though it didn't matter to him as they remained siblings regardless.
Lizzie's death and the dress's condition
Ben shared that Lizzie had died ten weeks before he entered the workshop, at only 68. He attributed her death to smoking 40 cigarettes a day for 40 years, followed by covid and pneumonia, which he described as 'checkmate'. He expressed that Lizzie should have been telling the story herself, as the dress was her creative rock, painted in many interpretations and guises.
The dress had been hanging in Lizzie's sitting room, taking pride of place, but due to her heavy smoking, the lace had taken on a yellowish tinge. Ben hoped to return it to its original lacy cream white and noted some seams were starting to go. However, Rebecca delivered the crushing blow: 'Realistically, I'm not sure whether it would ever, you know, be back to sparkly cream white.'
Restoration and emotional reaction
Ben wasn't too disheartened, reiterating that Lizzie had acquired the dress when it was already 40 years old, so the original colour was uncertain. He was organising a posthumous show for Lizzie, with the dress as the centrepiece, before it would be reunited with her daughter.
In the end, Rebecca managed to clean the dress and get it into a condition that left Ben overwhelmed. Seeing it hanging up, he held back tears and said: 'Oh wowzers, wow. You can see all the seamstress work you've done. Oh, it's lovely!' The BBC star noted that the colouring of the skirt wasn't far off from the original, which was more of a cream colour than he had realised.
The Repair Shop is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
