Lot 225
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North America, United States, Waste Basket Boutique by Mars Manufacturing Company of Asheville, North Carolina, ca. 1966. An a-line 'paper' maxi dress created by the "Waste Basket Boutique" in the late 1960s. Long and voluminous, this dress boasts a vibrant graphic pattern of hot pink, aqua blue, golden yellow, and spring green hues that reflected the new taste for pop/op art in the 1960s contemporary art scene. The dress still has its interior label which indicates size "TINY" (8-10), instructs "DO NOT WASH" and humorously warns "THIS MATERIAL IS FIRE RESISTANT UNLESS WASHED OR DRY CLEANED. THEN BECOMES DANGEROUSLY FLAMMABLE WHEN DRY". Dresses in the Waste Basket Boutique Collection were designed to be thrown away, shortened with scissors, and pressed with a cool iron. Made from a "New Wonder Fabric" they contained 93% Cellulose and 7% Nylon. Size (when displayed flat): 54" L x 56" W (137.2 cm x 142.2 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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#180064
- Condition: The dress still has its interior label and is in overall good condition. There is a small puncture to left proper shoulder, some crease marks, and a few areas at the hemline with minor fraying/losses. Some toning to background and a few small areas of discoloration/staining, but overall, the pattern is vivid and the colors are vibrant.
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