Vintage Fast Fashion: 1960s Paper Dresses

The 1960s brought heaps of cultural change, socially, culturally and economically. Notably, new and provocative fashion trends like the mini skirt and shift dresses saw a breakaway from the prim hourglass silhouettes of the 1950s, and new developments in production and materials saw the clothing industries change dramatically.

Original 60s packaging for a paper dress

Young people were pioneers of this change within fashion, having an increase in disposable income, and an open embrace of modern technology, fashion and production techniques. Previously handmade and coutour fashion has dominated, however as the 60s swung on, fashion became more colourful, casual and affordable to buy, bringing with it the short lived fashion trend of the paper dress. 

Dresses were patterned with loud and colourful prints, including these novelty prints of celebrities and musicians.

The paper dress was first mass produced in 1966 by the American Scott Paper Company as a marketing stunt. The dresses were made of dura-weve, a cellulose based material, and ordered through sending in a coupon and roughly no more than $2. Some dresses even came as coupons with restaurant meals, and were often printed in highly saturated and vivacious prints. 

60s advert for a paper dress

Despite the gorgeous, psychedelic, colourful graphics and patterns that were printed on the dresses, they did come with some downfalls when wearing. You could only wear them once or twice, as they easily ripped, and you couldn’t wash them, as cellulose warps once wet. 

Andy Warhol's The Souper Dress

Andy Warhol even got in on the trend creating two dresses, pictured here. The fragile dress was a ““paint your own” from Mars Manufacturing Company, which The Velvet Underground singer, Nico, wore while he painted on it. The Campbell’s Souper dresses were mass produced for people to wear in 1966 for $1. These dresses can be found online today with a resell price of £6,000 to £19000, with one being exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Paper dresses exhibited at the V&A Museum

As the dresses grew in popularity, newer ones were designed to last longer, combining wood pulp and synthetic materials, and being able to be refreshed via a cool iron setting. This was not to last though, as high streets began to supply more fast fashion with synthetic materials that could last longer than cellulose, providing a wider choice of more durable items that were in trend. 

The advertising was just as fun and novel as the dresses

Towards the end of the decade, the rise in the hippy movement saw a rejection of consumerism, which was a complete antithesis to buying a one-time-wear dress. By 1968, the paper dress was on the way out, having only 2 years as the height of fashion.