I wrote this label text for an exhibit at the Asheville Art Museum
Mars Manufacturing and the Paper Appeal [Intro panel]
Why would anyone wear a dress made of paper?
On its debut in March 1966, the paper dress hit a fashion and consumer market primed to embrace it. To promote its new line of “hip” print paper products, the Scott Paper Company advertised a choice of two “Paper Caper” dresses “created to make you the conversation piece at parties” for $1 plus postage. Orders poured in. From its beginning, the paper dress was linked with both fashion and novelty.
In 1966 Mars Manufacturing, of Asheville, NC, stepped into the paper whirl created by Scott. They brokered deals with major fashion retailers Abraham & Strauss and Gimbels to produce special lines for them. By the end of the year, they had produced close to 100,000 dresses.
Paper dresses were new and thus modern – daring, cheap, disposable, and most of all, fun. They fit a consumer culture dominated by youth and the breezy, hip, humor seen in popular culture images of James Bond, The Avengers, Batman, and That Girl. They were certainly not your mother’s dress, and offered a way to try out bolder patterns, new styles, and shorter lengths without real investment. As the original promotion said,
“Wear it for kicks, then give it the air!”
The Wastebasket Boutique Chic
Paper clothing had its initial, and most lasting, success in chic boutiques with catchy names such as “In Dispensable Disposables.” In an attempt to capitalize on this, Abraham & Strauss Department Stores in New York developed a specialized section for paper clothing within their notions department. Dubbed “The Waste Basket Boutique,” they featured exclusive Mars designs at prices well within reach of the average woman, or man.
Abraham & Strauss underscored the connection to hip boutique culture when it hired Pop artist Andy Warhol to stage a paper dress “happening” to celebrate the opening of the first “Waste Basket Boutique.” Warhol united painting with performance by stamping “Fragile” on a Mars blank paper dress while it was being worn by pop singer Nico. The Brooklyn Museum immediately acquired the dress, acknowledging the fine line between art and fashion.
It’s All in the Packaging (near or in case of packaging)
Most stores that carried the “Waste Basket Boutique” dresses sold them in packages like these, rather than hung on a rack. Mars designed its packaging to reflect the spirit of the period. The logo for the line of clothing combined visual references to childhood’s paper dolls with the large daisy flower motif popular in the late 1960s. Various fashion and business news headlines, in addition to the advertisements, reinforced the visual themes. Retailers also reveled in the use of puns that made the paper dress seem ultra “mod.”
Beyond the Paper Dress (for jumpsuit and romper)
By January of 1967, a front page story in The New York Times referred not to the “paper dress” but to “paper clothing.” As early as the fall of 1966, the basic A-line dress had been joined by beach cover-ups and soon included shorts, pants suits, jumpsuits, and even bikinis (designed for “sunning”). These items all fit comfortably within the recreational/fun focus that dominated much of the press given to paper clothing.
Pop Art Meets Retail (for premium dress section)
Before the logo t-shirt there was the paper dress premium. Scott’s “Paper Caper” dresses had depended on ads and coupons to form a link between the dresses and the company’s products, but later paper dress premiums took advantage of the Pop Art movement to make the link blatant.
In the early 1960s, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol changed notions of what defined art by making art out of commercial products and popular culture icons. This trend took the potential vulgarity of wearing a dress emblazoned with “Baby Ruth” or “Master Charge” and made it the height of hip.
The Ultimate Party Dress (near napkins and dress)
Mars made dresses for the Hallmark Company that played off the popularity of paper party goods. The fashionable hostess could literally embody their party’s decorative theme by wearing a dress that matched her tablecloth, napkins, cups and plates.
Do you think there would be a market for this today?
Paper Goes High Style
(either with pink and silver or fur trimmed dress)
In September of 1966, Mars introduced silver foil paper dresses suitable for evening wear. The foil was stronger than the earlier paper material and tapped into the “space-age” fashion seen in contemporary shows such as Star Trek and Lost in Space. The Wadsworth Athenaeum museum in Hartford, CT, held a paper ball held on October 24, 1966, stamping the paper dress with high society’s approval. A Vogue spread on paper dresses in February 1967 featured celebrities such as Candace Bergen and Lee Radziwill.
The cost of these “designer” paper dresses often ran into the hundreds. Although Mars did make its line of evening wear, the company stood firm on the point that “disposable dresses should have disposable prices” and continued to target the average consumer.
(with Audie Dress and her design ephemera)
As the designer for Mars’ paper dresses, Audie Bayer tapped into the spirit of the Pop Art movement. Artists of the early 20th century held that art occurs within all aspects of life. Artists of the “pop” movement, took this concept to a new level by focusing on the “art” of everyday things. Bayer’s first patterns for Mars used designs originally produced for gift-wrap and her easy shapes embodied contemporary clothing styles.
What do you think? Can consumer products be art?
The TWA “Foreign Accents” Dress
Paper dresses took to the air in April 1968 when TWA introduced its transcontinental “foreign accent” flights. Full-page advertisements proclaimed the wonders of flight “in four styles with hostesses to match!” Flight attendants, wearing the appropriately themed paper dress, illustrated each of the international styles—French, Olde English, Italian, and Manhattan Penthouse. Mars produced the dresses for TWA, and passengers were given the opportunity to order their own “foreign accent” dress for use at home.
The Little Black (and Yellow) Dress
“Wear the Yellow Pages Out for $1”
On May 26, 1968 Parade magazine featured a full page ad showing a hip, blond model wearing a Mars produced paper dress patterned with a collage of the Yellow Pages. The text offered consumers “A flashy paper put-on” that was “just plain fun to wear” for only $1, less than the original Scott dress, which had also required 25 cents postage. The response was equally impressive. Mars soon had 80,000 orders to fill each week.
Unlike the “Waste Basket Boutique” dresses, the Yellow Pages dress escaped the confines of local retail outlets and gained a national audience. The extremely low cost of the dress undoubtedly assisted its wild popularity, but sales could only be sustained by a large direct mail, campaign. Ultimately, the very success of the Yellow Pages dress may have contributed to its demise. After all, once everyone had one, or at least knew someone who had one, the thrill was gone.
The Paper Dress Fades Out
The Yellow Pages dress proved to be both the biggest and the last hit for Mars. Fashion “buzz” over the paper dress peaked by mid 1967, and by 1969 paper clothing was fading from view. The forces behind its decline were much the same as those behind its rise—popular culture, cost and fashion. While the culture of the mid 1960s associated youth with carefree fun, national and global events of 1967 and 1968 changed American culture dramatically. It did not help that paper dresses were also uncomfortable.
In 1969 the Bayer family sold Mars Manufacturing to Work Wear Corporation, although they continued to be employed by the new owners. Several years later they left Work Wear and formed another company called American Threshold which focused on the production of paper hospital and laboratory goods.
The Museum Doctor 
Our daughter just sent this to us! We loved the Asheville Art Museum exhibit …..
We are the Bayers, still in Asheville, wondering why we did not keep the Warhol painted dress!
Audie Bayer