Lot 229
North America, United States, Waste Basket Boutique by Mars Manufacturing Company of Asheville, North Carolina, ca. 1966. An a-line 'paper' shift dress created by the "Waste Basket Boutique" in the 1960s. The dress is in its original package featuring an image of a model with her dress cut out to show the stylish pattern of the actual dress. The text reads, "Excitingly NEW! From The
'Waste Basket Boutique' COLLECTION - Throwaway A-LINE SHIFT DRESS - Shorten with Scissors - Press with Cool Iron - kaycel New Wonder Fabric - 93% Cellulose, 7% Nylon - Fire and Water Resistant - Sizes: Teeny 4-6 - Tiny 8-10 - Bigger 12-14 Biggest 16-18 By MARS MFG. CO., INC. OF ASHEVILLE, N.C." This particular dress is the "Tiny" size (size 8-10) and presents a vibrant pattern of hot pink and bright orange horizontal stripes, vertical strips on the two pockets. Size: 37" L x 26" W (94 cm x 66 cm)
Waste Basket Boutique dresses have been collected by major museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK; the Museum of Fine Arts Boston; and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, NY among others. According to Kristina Parsons' catalogue essay for the Cooper Hewitt's paper dress, "In March of 1966, Scott Paper Company created the first paper dress as a promotional ad gimmick to help sell their product. To receive their newest paper fashion, customers simply mailed in a coupon from a Scott product along with a small fee (around $1.25) and in return they would receive for their paper dress. This advertising gimmick quickly and unexpectedly caught on with consumers. At the height of production and popularity, The Mars Manufacturing Company of Asheville North Carolina, responsible for the creation of the Cooper-Hewitts paper dress, sold between 80,000 and 100,000 dresses each week.
For many Americans in the 1960s, participating in the culture of mass consumption was a way of engaging with the new modern age. Consumerism and consumption thus became equated with a belief in modernity and the future. Ephemeral objects fulfilled the desire for owning the newest and latest products without a long-term financial commitment, leaving the owner free to replace or refresh their possessions whenever they fancied. Throwaway clothing fit neatly into a futuristic vision of the world where everything was conveniently automated and fashions changed at the speed of light.
The silhouette of the Cooper-Hewitt's paper dress fits seamlessly into contemporary trends with its short hem and A-line shape that was favored particularly by the Mods (a prominent youth culture of the time). Additionally, the 2-dimensionality of the paper dress was the perfect canvas for transferring the daring and graphic prints of the contemporary art scene to the fashion world as a sort of wearable billboard. In fact, the advertising potential of these dresses was so great, that they were adapted for everything from Campbell's soup advertisements to propaganda for the Nixon Campaign. Paper dresses represented the combined interest in fashion, pop/op art and popular culture that was prevalent in the 1960s.
People predicted that by 1980, paper dresses would take over the clothing industry altogether. In the midst of growing environmental concerns and distaste for government policies however, the propensity for paper dresses was quickly seen as frivolous in comparison. The fashion for paper garments burned brightly but was short-lived as the Mod and Pop styles were overturned by the hippie lifestyle that valued a 'back-to-nature' attitude. The disposable garment, though no longer the forefront of vogue fashions, remains a prominent fixture of our society's landscape however, in hospital settings as well as in the restaurant and factory industry." (Cooper Hewitt website posted January 31, 2014)
Provenance: private Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, USA collection
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#180066
- Condition: This dress came to us folded within its original package (cardboard cutout label over the dress within a plastic wrap). The original "WASTE BASKET BOUTIQUE" label remains on the dress (see photos). Attached to the piping on the right shoulder of the dress is an old tag that reads "Braunstein's the fashion capital of Delaw(are)" on one side. The dress has fold marks as it came to us folded within its original packaging. A couple of threads extending from right proper neckline but they do not indicate damage. Slight stain to front below neckline, perhaps an impression from the interior label that developed over time as the paper most likely was not acid free. Hemline may have been trimmed, but the Cooper Hewitt Museum dress has a similarly uneven hemline, so this may have been how the dress was made. Also, the dress still has the Braunstein's label attached as well as its original packaging which suggests that it was not worn.
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