PAPER CAPER

 

Many young people of the 1960s enjoyed an unprecedented spending power with more disposable income than ever before. This disposable income bolstered a new trend, disposable dresses.

 

Paper Caper were the first mass-market paper dress, manufactured by Scott Paper Company as a gimmick to promote the company’s throwaway tableware range. These mail-ordered paper dresses became an unexpected success; between March and August 1966, half a million dresses were sold, and so ushered in a new trend of paper fashions. 

 

The dress was printed in red paisley and in a monochrome Op-Art (as pictured here), and was sold for $1. They were made of ‘Dura-weave’, a cellulose and rayon blend, and were only intended for 1 or 2 wears, which suited the fast-changing, trend-driven and frivolous fashion of the ‘60s. They could not be sewn, so were adjusted by cutting and taping, a huge shift from the ‘make do and mend’ mentality of the previous decade.

 

This paper trend was as short-lived as their dresses. By the end of 1968, the counterculture was growing, and many began to reject the consumerist ideas that these paper dresses represented. 

 

We’re very excited to have one in the archive, with its original shipment box!