Paper Dresses of the 1960s

This is so neat! Thank you for presenting this workshop, Jonathan.

Like others, I had no idea about the early uses of paper in fashion. I'm looking forward to the rest of your workshop.

Commercially produced paper dresses didn't kill creativity. A paper dress ball held at the Wadsworth Atheneum in the fall of 1966 encouraged party-goers to have designers create couture one-offs for the event; some of the results were pictured in Life Magazine. Mars of Asheville also offered a plain white dress in the fall of 1966 that came with a water colour paint set. To promote this product Mars hired Andy Warhol to design one at a happening. He stencilled 'fragile' onto the dress while a model wore it and signed the dress 'Dali'. The resulting garment, seen here, was donated to the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

By the spring of 1967 paper dresses were a full flung fad. At Expo 67 in Montreal seen above, paper dresses were featured in the pulp and paper pavillion. Hallmark picked up on the trend and produced paper dresses with matching paper plates, gift wrap, napkins, placemats and other party paraphernalia for a complete party theme!

By the end of 1967 the paper fad had expanded to include paper jewellery (including papier mache), shoes, and even duds for dogs!

Designers specializing in paper explored the possibilities of different types of paper garments including Elisa Daggs who was hired to create stewardess uniforms of paper including one in gold foil (a new type of paper recently introduced in the mid 1960s and used widly by fast food restaurants...) for transatlantic service from New York to Paris. The Indian paper sari, also designed by Elisa Daggs, was made for Air India but not for wear by stewardesses, but rather as a promotional item.

Probably the most famous paper dress ever is this one used as a promotion by Campbell's Soup and called the 'Souper' dress in 1967. It could be purchased with some proofs of purchase of Campell's soup and money for postage. Although the inspiration for the design was taken from Warhol's use of the Campbell's Soup label in his early 60s Graphic Art style works, Warhol did not design this dress or have any involvement in its creation. In fact, Warhol's use of the label for his own artwork and Campbell's use of Warhol's style for their own product would today probably end up in a court battle over copyright infringement -- for both parties!

In the days before T-shirt art, the paper dress became a billboard for advertisers, sometimes very artistically such as in this silk screen print of Hollywood faces to be seen in upcoming film releases in 1968, and sometimes patriotically, as seen in this dress for the democratic campaign of Bobby Kennedy in 1968.

Now its your turn to guess!

These two dresses were made as advertising premiums for specific products... The first to guess correctly which products will win a copy of my book 'Ready to Tear: Paper Fashions of the 60s' Those with a copy of my book (and I know who you are!) are disqualified because you can look up the answer....

What a treat! Claire

As early as 1967 there was a serious shortage of paper for making paper garments and alternatives were experimented with including Fibron, a pressed rayon fibre with tiny perforations allover (still made today as J-CLoths and Handi-Wipes). These English made dresses used Fibron instead of paper, however, the market for which they were made was identified as 'disposables', so materials ranged from paper and Fibron to spun polyester Reemay and even light plastic dresses.
The London Poster series was supposed to be the first of many but with the exception of Bob Dylan, another series was never produced by this company.

THe flowered dress is a plasticized reemay, disposable perhaps, but it could take a thousands years to break down!
Tyvek was the other new wonder 'disposable' material of the age and was used for making bathing suits. These new materials however were symptomatic of the demise of the paper dress trend. By late 1968 paper, fibron, reemay, tyvek and all other disposable material garments were languishing on store shelves and magazines with offers of premiums and give-aways of disposable garments dwindled with each passing month.

The Hippie movement with its strong anti-pollution message was effectively changing the late 1960s from one of self-consicous space-age modernity into a more planet friendly back to nature awareness -- the conflict between these two extremes persist today!

In the late 1970s disposable tyvek bathing suits were once again being offered at hotels which now often had year round heated indoor swimming pools. Travellers not yet used to this luxury would arrive without a bathing suit. Dipsters brand came to the rescue for a few dollars each!

In the 1980s there was some experimentation with Tyvek. Spearheaded by Issey Miyake, he liked the papery qualities of Tyvek which was similar to the traditional Japanese oiled paper used for making rain capes and parasols. His 1985 coat seen here explored the modern use of Tyvek in fashion but for the most part it was traditionally cut jackets that were the most successful on the market. They were especially popular for those who went to open air concerts or sporting events unprepared for a change in the weather.

Man - This is ALL new to me. Thank you so much Jonathan.

this is great! well presented succinct, understandable and informative, thanks JOnathan!!
wish l could guess what the dresses were used for, all l can say is the first one reminds me of a candy stripe, so perhpas sweets, l thought lucky stripe but they were red? and the blue one reminds me of water, so eraly bottled wtare, or 7up some such thing?? duh, l'm probably Sooooo far off!!!

thanks for doing this , l'm really enjoying it...

Good stuff. I learned a lot. I'll have to check our your book. Thanks!

Karen

Yes Sara - I was trying to guess about those dresses too. If the Campbell Soup one wasn't so famous, I might have thought that was it for the stripes... then I think about some "intimates" like Vanity Fair. I can't see what's on the other one, but somehow I don't imagine a sardine company would come up with paper dresses for advertising. !!!

I will give you some hints. The pink stripe dress -- the colour and thickness of the stripes is important to keep in mind. THe other dress is actually little tiny green leaves...

Perhaps the green leaves one for Wrigley's spearmint gum? Haven't a clue on the pink one.