Woman's Paper Dress
Subject
Clothing and Dress
Title
Woman's Paper Dress
Date
1966-1967
Format
The dress measures 29 inches (73.8 cm) across the hem, 12.5 inches (33.8 cm) from shoulder to shoulder, and 38 inches (96 cm) in length.
Description
The paper dress can be considered quintessentially sixties- it was made of an exciting new material, the length was adjustable, and more importantly there was no need to commit to it. The craze for paper dresses lasted from 1966 to 1968 (Zidianakis 2007). It began in March 1966, when Scott Paper Company created two dresses, one black and white Op Art print dress and one paisley print dress, to promote their new paper products line called “Colorful Explosions” (Zidianakis 2007).
The dresses could be purchased by anyone via mail order. A coupon for the dress came with the products, and all the purchaser had to do was fill out and mail the coupon with $1.25 for postage and wait. By August of the same year 500,000 paper dresses had been ordered. Other companies recognized the potential of paper and joined in on the fun. One of those companies was Mars Manufacturing Company based in Asheville, North Carolina. Originally a hosiery and swimsuit producer, Mars of Asheville eventually became a household name for paper dresses. The appeal of paper dresses was their disposability. Furthermore, they were a canvas for the times, used to display art, political figures, and pop culture icons.
This is a blue sleeveless A-line dress with an aqua abstract print. The armholes and neckline are bound with aqua tape. There is a keyhole closure in the back fastened with a tie made of the same tape. The dark blue dress is an example of the abstract prints and exciting colors that became popular for paper fashion in the sixties. The aqua lines on the dark blue background are meant to simulate movement.
The simple, no-fuss construction allowed these dresses to be produced quickly, but at the cost of quality. On a few of the dresses, the seams do not match up. However, this did nothing to reduce the mania for paper clothing. After all, these dresses were essentially made for disposal, meant to be discarded after a few wears. It was even expected that the dress would fall apart, and wearers were half-jokingly encouraged to use tape to make repairs. In fact, the blue and aqua dress has tape on one side seam. Attitudes toward paper dresses were explored on December 6, 1966 when Women’s Wear Daily published a segment called “The Paper Explosion. One WWD staff member’s view was, “Everyone was fascinated by them, but they are strictly for fun” (The Paper Explosion, 1996). That was the dominant attitude—they were fun, they were cheap, they were something to wear while doing housework. On the other hand, paper was a material that people believed had applications in space. Hollen and Sadler wrote about the uses of paper fabrics in disposable items, such as “…disposable wash cloths and damp napkins eliminate lint, which might float around inside a space capsule and be inhaled by astronauts.” Taking this quote out of context of the sixties would make it seem strange. Why would astronauts be mentioned in a book about textiles? However, taking the space race into consideration it makes sense since paper was being used by NASA for experiments in single-use clothing (Baxter-Wright 2011). In a way, a paper dress allowed the wearer to be a part of these developments.
The dresses could be purchased by anyone via mail order. A coupon for the dress came with the products, and all the purchaser had to do was fill out and mail the coupon with $1.25 for postage and wait. By August of the same year 500,000 paper dresses had been ordered. Other companies recognized the potential of paper and joined in on the fun. One of those companies was Mars Manufacturing Company based in Asheville, North Carolina. Originally a hosiery and swimsuit producer, Mars of Asheville eventually became a household name for paper dresses. The appeal of paper dresses was their disposability. Furthermore, they were a canvas for the times, used to display art, political figures, and pop culture icons.
This is a blue sleeveless A-line dress with an aqua abstract print. The armholes and neckline are bound with aqua tape. There is a keyhole closure in the back fastened with a tie made of the same tape. The dark blue dress is an example of the abstract prints and exciting colors that became popular for paper fashion in the sixties. The aqua lines on the dark blue background are meant to simulate movement.
The simple, no-fuss construction allowed these dresses to be produced quickly, but at the cost of quality. On a few of the dresses, the seams do not match up. However, this did nothing to reduce the mania for paper clothing. After all, these dresses were essentially made for disposal, meant to be discarded after a few wears. It was even expected that the dress would fall apart, and wearers were half-jokingly encouraged to use tape to make repairs. In fact, the blue and aqua dress has tape on one side seam. Attitudes toward paper dresses were explored on December 6, 1966 when Women’s Wear Daily published a segment called “The Paper Explosion. One WWD staff member’s view was, “Everyone was fascinated by them, but they are strictly for fun” (The Paper Explosion, 1996). That was the dominant attitude—they were fun, they were cheap, they were something to wear while doing housework. On the other hand, paper was a material that people believed had applications in space. Hollen and Sadler wrote about the uses of paper fabrics in disposable items, such as “…disposable wash cloths and damp napkins eliminate lint, which might float around inside a space capsule and be inhaled by astronauts.” Taking this quote out of context of the sixties would make it seem strange. Why would astronauts be mentioned in a book about textiles? However, taking the space race into consideration it makes sense since paper was being used by NASA for experiments in single-use clothing (Baxter-Wright 2011). In a way, a paper dress allowed the wearer to be a part of these developments.
Source
Donor: Daphne Dyer
Identifier
URI 1987.04.01
Contributor
Zhanique Waite
Creator
Mars of Asheville
Medium
Kaycel, a nonwoven fabric composed of cellulose and nylon
Collection
Citation
Mars of Asheville , “Woman's Paper Dress,” Historic Textile and Costume Collection, accessed April 27, 2024, https://uritextilecollection.omeka.net/items/show/453.