Reflections: Pop or Op

Overview of Assignment Requirements

Harry Gordon, Mystic Eye (Audrey Hepburn’s Eye), Pop art paper dress, 1967. Collection of the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation, museum no. 2006.6.90.

This week in your Three Objects in Focus video and the readings, you were introduced to paper clothing. Paper clothing, in the form of women’s dresses and other clothes made from disposable cellulose fabric, was a short-lived fashion novelty item in the United States in the 1960s. The paper dress captured the vibrant, youthful, optimistic and consumerist zeitgeist of 1960s America so precisely that the fashion press speculated about paper garments taking over the entire clothes market. But as the novelty appeal of paper clothes wore off, their downsides became more apparent: they were generally ill-fitting and uncomfortable to wear, their garish colors could rub off, they were often flammable, and of course they very soon ended up as waste. By 1968, paper clothing had disappeared from the market.

While no longer encountered in mass-market fashion, the cellulose fabrics once used to make paper clothes are still employed to make disposable garments for work environments, such as hospital gowns, scrubs, and coveralls. Contemporary designers interested in employing new and sustainable materials, are looking towards paper.

For this reflection assignment, I would like you to take on the role as paper clothing designer in the 1960s. You are trying to convince a leading department store to carry your line of paper clothing. What would your pitch be to the executives? Consider and reference the readings you did this week. You are also free to research on your own. What are some of the selling points? How do your designs capture the 1960s era? Remember, you are traveling back in your time machine to the 1960s. What was society and culture interested in then?

What needs to be included in the submission?

Submit a at least 10 sentences pitch of why the department store should carry your line of paper clothing. Consider the questions included in the assignment overview.