Abstract
In 1966, the American Scott Paper Company created a marketing campaign where customers could send in money to receive a dress made of a cellulose material called “Dura-Weave.” What began as a way to sell more products became a defining trend of American fashion in the late 1960s. The paper dress created a market for paper clothing while simultaneously capitalizing on broader social issues. The advent of paper clothing was directly related to the rise in consumer and disposability culture, and as Americans looked to space as “the last frontier,” paper clothing seemed a feasible solution to laundry on the moon. Paper clothing also acted as a vehicle for artistic expression, best seen in the Pop Art movement. Despite projections that paper clothing would come to dominate the fashion industry, the paper dress was all but obsolete by the end of 1968. Paper clothing and the enthusiasm surrounding this style was an indicator not only of the American mindset in the late 1960s but of American projections for the future.
How to Cite
Knight, V., (2015) ““The Answer to Laundry in Outer Space”: The Rise and Fall of the Paper Dress in 1960s American Fashion”, Capstone, The UNC Asheville Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship 28(1).
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