It’s the pulp non-fiction account of paper dresses

It’s the pulp non-fiction account of paper dresses

An show opening in Melbourne now features 32 historical and contemporary paper dresses from a collection in Athens.

Co-curator Stamos Fafalios said paper clothes, which were sold in packets similar to those for hosiery, resonated with the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s.

“Women could go away on the vacation without having to take luggage,” Fafalios says. “They could just put a couple of paper clothes in their handbag.

“Very often they would cut them shorter and use the leftover paper as belts or hair decorations.”

The first paper clothes were made in 1966 by Scott Paper Company in the US to promote its new range of paperware. It affixed coupons to the back of produces such as toilet paper and napkins that could be collected to redeem a dress.

The most luxurious dress in the Melbourne exhibition is an Andy Warhol-inspired design for Campbell’s Soup called The Souper Dress (1968), valued at E10,000 ($13,347).

The Airmail Dress (1999), by London stylish Hussein Chalayan, can be written on and put in an envelope (included with the clothing) and posted.

“When it arrives you can dress it as a dress with your lover’s or a friend’s letter on it,” Fafalios said.

Nixon’s campaign dress, a 1967 clothing featuring Bob Dylan and a 1968 dress for Universal Studios featuring actress Elizabeth Taylor and actor Paul Newman, are also on show.

Fafalios did not include Sarah Caplan’s 1999 Twin Towers poster dress in the exhibition. “Now it stands for something totally different,” he said.The Paper Clothes Fashion Exhibition is at Melbourne’s Chadstone shopping centre until June 5.