It’s the right thing to do when your fashion blog has got yellow paper dress written all over it – embark on a paper dress trail, albeit in cyberspace.
So, googling left me ogling over the wonderful world of “Wear and Tear” – past and present. It all started in the 1960s which, apart from being a remarkable period taking fashion to “new heights” with daring innovations such as the mini skirt – was also the beginning of the disposable fad in America. Cutlery, plates, razors, diapers…and the birth of Plastic Island in the North Pacific perhaps?
According to Wikipedia.com, paper dresses were invented by the Scott Paper Company in 1966 as a marketing tool. For one dollar, women could buy the dress and also receive coupons for Scott paper products.
The company was taken aback by the overwhelming reaction with women ordering half a million of these dresses in under a year. People were demanding more convenience and instant gratification. What was more instantly gratifying than a dress you could hem yourself with only a pair of scissors, or a dress that could simply be thrown out if it got dirty?
As the trend took off, companies began to experiment with style and fabric, adding other materials to the paper to make a sturdier garment that could even be washed. Mars Manufacturing Company invented a wide range of paper dresses including wedding gowns – all for under $20. Other companies followed, inventing such things as paper slippers, paper bell-bottom suits and waterproofed paper raincoats and bikinis. There was even a paper dress invented that grew herbs when water was added. And Andy Warhol got in on the trend, creating a design based on his famous Campbell’s soup can print.
Andy Warhols Souper Dress
Paper dresses sounded like the next great invention – convenient, cheap and fashionable. So why did they disappear off the scene as early as 1968?
Seems like the physical limitations of a dress made from paper were just too great. Despite efforts to invent a durable paper-based fabric, the dresses ripped too easily. Also, though some dresses had chemicals added to prevent them catching fire, repeated washings removed this protection.
It remains, however, a testament to the vibrant, youthful, optimistic and consumerist zeitgeist of the 1960s America and paper dresses from that era still inspire contemporary fashion designers, including the quirky origami-inspired designs pictured below by Sandra Backlund (www.sandrabacklund.com).
New York-based Vivienne Tam, who designed the to-die-for digital HP “clutch” notebook in 2008 for serious techy fashionistas, is another designer who has explored Chinese paper-cutting methods with her fabric – to glamorous effect as seen on the white and silver leather dress below.
Vivienne Tam
In 2009, the Antwerp Fashion Museum hosted the MoMu: Paper Fashion exhibition which helped illustrate the “art to wear” aspect of paper dresses, such as the designs of world-renowned Japanese designer Issey Miyake (below) and Pop Art-inspired dresses imprinted with Travis Hutchison photography. Source: www.mademoisellelek.wordpress.com/2009/04/
And the ultimate in futuristic paper couture by Russian creatives Doberman…
(Source: http://trendland.net/2009/07/21/paper-dress-editorial-for-lofficiel/#)
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