"Generation Paper," A 60's Fashion Trend Now Exhibiting At The Museum Of Arts & Design
“Generation Paper” is a fashion exhibit located at The Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. The exhibit follows the interesting history behind the short -lived ”paper clothing” Trend that began in 1966 and faded with the end of 1970. As soon as you step out of the elevators to the exhibit, you're immediately met with two shiny, metallic gold and silver dresses displayed on a medium-sized, circular platform. As you walk around the room, many other displays of paper dresses, bathing suits, and children’s clothes of many colors and designs are displayed at each corner of the gallery. Surprisingly enough, Scott Paper Company started the trend as a marketing strategy and advertised a mail-in promotion for paper dresses. For a fee, customers could order dresses and bandanas featuring bold and more muted designs. but it quickly gained popularity, particularly among Young women, for the paper dresses could be cut to desired lengths.. Many of the garments were advertised as being made from “paper” but were actually made from a blend of rayon, which is a cellulose fiber polyester. In order to make the clothing waterproof, many of the clothes were also made from laminated plastic and metallics.
These paper clothing items were marketed as “fast, fun, and disposable.” As a result, a silhouette that was also quite popular during that era, and embodied the message behind paper clothing, were A-line dresses. They were easy to manufacture, easy to wear, and made a great canvas for popular paper clothing pattern maker companies (i.e., Hallmark, Mars inc.) and even politicians like Richard M. Nixon looking to promote their political campaigns. The trend extended beyond A-line dresses. Customers had options from which to choose: “mommy and me” sets,” Beach wear sets, Children's clothing (though not as popular due to their lack of durability). There were even options to match your clothing to your disposable table napkins!
Although this trend soared in popularity in such a short time, it was inevitably just as short-lived. Concerns surrounding the durability of the clothing, its sustainability and the safety of the paper clothing were recurring. Once the paper clothing was washed, the fire-proof coating on the outside would disappear, causing concern for fire hazard. Furter, the clothing was made to be disposable, but was found to be difficult to recycle causing issues around sustainability. Soon enough The trend that was marketed as recyclable was sent to the recycling bin for good. Though the trend didn’t last into the 1970’s, it did help pave the way to more durable and better-quality personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care workers.
It was a surprising delight to learn so much about this not-so-commonly-known or talked about part of fashion history. One thought that floated to my mind as I was gazing at one of the dresses was how fashion is truly never original (in the best possible way). If you think something has never been done, all it takes is a quick search to learn the history and draw inspiration from so many talented people who came before us.
Article by Lily Nawfor, Contributor, PhotoBook Magazine
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