the abbreviated reign of “neon” leon spinks

CONVENIENCE ISN’T ALWAYS ENOUGH 109
ted paper dress at the American Home Economics Association convention
at Kansas City.
Kimberly-Clark continued to explore the idea of making paper
dresses for years. In 1965, for example, a company magazine featured a
disposable wedding dress, an eve ning frock, and a “futuristic” gown that
Chicago designers had created from bolts of Kaycel, another paper-based
fabric that today is used in the caps worn in hospital operating rooms.
But competitor Scott Paper beat Kimberly-Clark to the punch. In
the spring of 1966, on the national telecast of the Junior Miss Pageant, the
paper company unveiled its sleeveless shift paper dress, with the choice of
either a bandanna print or a geometric op- art design. The revolutionary
disposable garment could be had for a mere $1.25, plus a coupon clipped
from the packaging of Scott’s Colorful Explosions line of paper towels,
napkins, and bathroom tissue.
It was a whimsical promotional gimmick, but the response was
startling. From March to August, Scott received five hundred thousand
mail coupons for paper dresses. National magazines and small-town
newspapers alike scrambled to run articles about what they eagerly proclaimed
to be the next big fashion fad. “Paper clips, a ruler and an eraser
are not exactly the tools of a Christian Dior, but nowadays they will do in
a pinch, or more readily, in a tear,” proclaimed a typical example in a
suburban Philadelphia newspaper in April 1966. “The latest gimmick in
the fast-paced world of fashion is the paper dress, which probably will
develop into a throw-away wardrobe.”
But Will It Outlast the Frug?
According to a 1991 essay by fashion historian Alexandra Palmer,
Scott was taken aback, since it had no real ambitions of branching out into
fashion. But others quickly jumped on the opportunity. North Carolina’s
Mars Manufacturing rushed in with its line of “Throwaway Clothes,”
with op-art, paisley, and paint-your-own designs, in addition to a space
age silver-foil shift made from a fabric used to insulate astronauts’ space-