Living Paper Dolls.

I was surfing through a fashion page online where the designers had done these fabulous dresses out of paper. It reminded me of something, which led me to Google to see if I could verify that my memory was, in fact, accurate. Apparently way back in the dark old ages of 1967-68 (I KNOW I am giving away my age here, but whatever. I don't have any hangups about numbers, so I don't care), paper fashions were all the rage. I had a vague memory of my Mother putting me in those disposable paper dresses for the better part of a summer. They were little sleeveless shifts in bright colors, and they just slipped right over your head. No buttons, or zippers at all. I spent the majority of my summer days outside playing. I remember rolling in the grass, making mud pies, catching lightning bugs (why do some people call them fireflies?)...and I am sure I was a filthy little monster by nightfall. With those dresses you just threw it away at the end of the day, and pulled out a nice fresh clean one the next morning. I'm sure it cut way down on laundry for my mother. The dresses looked exactly like this:



I was really young then (around 5 ish...again, shut up about the age thing). I don't recall hating the paper dresses. I think that they were kind of gauzy, almost like a dried baby wipe, but not as stiff. They didn't tear as easily as you might imagine. I just can't see anything like that going over well in this day and age, though. Throw away clothes wouldn't fit in to our (necessary) need to recycle. Think of all that waste. But my google search provided some insight into what prompted the idea way back in the late 60's. They were trying to market them to reduce laundry, and to make travel more simple. Hotels, and vacation destinations were thinking about providing paper resort wear so that a person could literally go on vacation wtihout having to pack luggage. Just buy a few disposable outfits when you arrive and you are good to go. The major producer of these items was the Mars company out of Asheville, NC.

The downfall of the paper clothing line? They turned out to be quite flammable, unfortunately. They had all but disappeared within a year's time. Oh well. Its funny how I hadn't thought about that in so long, and its also quite amazing how much you can find out about almost anything on Google. Most of the paper dresses that remain from that time can be found in museums now....HAHA! Ok, so now I might feel old.