1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:06,360 Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and 2 00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:10,559 Speaker 1: there's Chuck. And this is short stuff stuff stuff about 3 00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: a really amazing fad that I hadn't heard of until 4 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:17,880 Speaker 1: fairly recently. Chuck, I somehow knew about this, and I'm 5 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:21,160 Speaker 1: not sure how, Huh do you think your mom might 6 00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:23,119 Speaker 1: have worn a paper dress and told you about it 7 00:00:23,239 --> 00:00:27,200 Speaker 1: or something. I don't think so, but we're talking about 8 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:31,200 Speaker 1: paper dresses. In the mid nineteen sixties, Uh, the Scott 9 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:36,400 Speaker 1: Paper Company had a new product to promote called Dura weave. 10 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:42,239 Speaker 1: It's basically mostly paper. And then about Rayon and it 11 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:45,440 Speaker 1: was sort of just like a little more durable napkin 12 00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:49,040 Speaker 1: that they were super stoked about. Plastic was all the rage. 13 00:00:50,200 --> 00:00:51,560 Speaker 1: I don't know what that has to do with rayon. 14 00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:55,760 Speaker 1: Rayon's a kind of plastic. I believe it's like a 15 00:00:55,800 --> 00:00:59,520 Speaker 1: plastic fiber. Okay, great, Plastic was all the rage, like 16 00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:01,360 Speaker 1: I said, And they said, all right, here's what we're 17 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:03,640 Speaker 1: gonna do to try and market this thing. We're gonna 18 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:06,880 Speaker 1: show how durable it is by making clothing, making some 19 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:11,720 Speaker 1: dresses out of paper. And it was literally just a 20 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:15,680 Speaker 1: marketing thing, and you you like sent out like clip 21 00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:18,200 Speaker 1: clip something off and mail it in and then like 22 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:21,240 Speaker 1: a dollar in a quarter to get your paper dress 23 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:23,600 Speaker 1: mail back. And then a few weeks later you might 24 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:26,440 Speaker 1: have like a little red bandana print paper dress to 25 00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:30,880 Speaker 1: wear around. And it went off like gangbusters. It just 26 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:35,200 Speaker 1: blew up. Like they had two dresses to choose from. 27 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:38,240 Speaker 1: Scott called the dresses paper papers, and they both wear 28 00:01:38,319 --> 00:01:41,199 Speaker 1: the same cut there like a frame like mod mini 29 00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:44,280 Speaker 1: dress um. And like you said, one was red bandana, 30 00:01:44,319 --> 00:01:47,520 Speaker 1: the other's black and white op art and um. For 31 00:01:47,600 --> 00:01:51,680 Speaker 1: some reason, they just happened to touch a nerve and 32 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:55,200 Speaker 1: like you said, it took off like Gangbusters, so much 33 00:01:55,240 --> 00:02:00,000 Speaker 1: so that Scott suddenly pivoted and started advertising in magazine 34 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:03,840 Speaker 1: it's like mad Moiselle um for their paper dresses and 35 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:06,440 Speaker 1: got just a huge response from it. I think they 36 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:09,280 Speaker 1: sold half a million of them in the less than 37 00:02:09,320 --> 00:02:12,560 Speaker 1: the year that they were producing these things. Yeah, and 38 00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:14,600 Speaker 1: you may think, I'm in what a what a funny 39 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:18,800 Speaker 1: boon for the Scott Paper company making all this money 40 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:21,880 Speaker 1: on these dresses. It was a marketing thing, so they 41 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:25,320 Speaker 1: never they sold them for so cheap. They weren't really 42 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:27,320 Speaker 1: even making any money. They're kind of covering their costs 43 00:02:27,639 --> 00:02:30,799 Speaker 1: because it was only meant to be an advertisement anyway, 44 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:33,760 Speaker 1: So they basically couldn't say, all right, well, now we're 45 00:02:33,760 --> 00:02:35,960 Speaker 1: going to charge eight bucks a pop forums oh you 46 00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:40,840 Speaker 1: like those, hukay. But other companies did catch on and 47 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:43,560 Speaker 1: think they could make more than a dollar apiece. Yeah. 48 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:48,079 Speaker 1: So when I said Scott touched something off, um, which 49 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:49,560 Speaker 1: is a really weird way to put it now that 50 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:53,400 Speaker 1: I say it out loud, Um, that's kind of an understatement. 51 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:57,320 Speaker 1: They somehow managed to say, Um, let's try this marketing thing. 52 00:02:57,320 --> 00:02:59,320 Speaker 1: It'll be cute, it'll be fun or whatever, but really, 53 00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:02,000 Speaker 1: what we're doing showing off how durable or dura weave 54 00:03:02,200 --> 00:03:04,519 Speaker 1: paper line is, Like, it's so durable you can wear 55 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:08,200 Speaker 1: it as a dress. But they managed to stumble backwards 56 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:12,240 Speaker 1: into this like the exactly where the fashion industry was 57 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:16,320 Speaker 1: at that moment, and then this burgeoning like um kind 58 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:22,520 Speaker 1: of ethos or zeitgeist of popular culture just wanting everything 59 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:27,240 Speaker 1: plastic and disposable and and just handy. Um. And they 60 00:03:27,280 --> 00:03:30,400 Speaker 1: put them together accidentally in these paper dresses. And I 61 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:33,560 Speaker 1: think that's from everything I saw, that's why historians think 62 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:35,520 Speaker 1: it took off and became a fad like it did. 63 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:40,200 Speaker 1: That's right, and they were I think there was about 64 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: three and a half a million dollars worth of these 65 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:45,680 Speaker 1: paper garments. And we'll get to after the break, all 66 00:03:45,680 --> 00:03:48,000 Speaker 1: the different kinds they had. Um at the close of 67 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:50,880 Speaker 1: n that's a lot of money in nineteen I'm sorry, 68 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:54,120 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six. It's a lot of money in sixty six. 69 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:57,880 Speaker 1: And I think, um, the Waste bast Kit Boutique, which 70 00:03:57,880 --> 00:04:00,320 Speaker 1: is one of the paper design houses, were making a 71 00:04:00,440 --> 00:04:03,280 Speaker 1: hundred thousand of these a week at one point. Yeah, nut, nuts, 72 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:07,040 Speaker 1: it is good nuts. We're going to take a good 73 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:36,120 Speaker 1: break and be right get back mm hmm and shock. Okay, silly, 74 00:04:36,279 --> 00:04:39,440 Speaker 1: so we're back. We're back. Um, you were talking about 75 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: Waste Basket Boutique making a hundred thousand dresses a week. 76 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:45,400 Speaker 1: One of the great things about these things, these paper 77 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:49,080 Speaker 1: dresses that were sudden fat in the mid sixties, UM, 78 00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:52,080 Speaker 1: is that they were easy to produce, which is how 79 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:54,320 Speaker 1: you could create like a new business to make them 80 00:04:54,320 --> 00:04:56,919 Speaker 1: and make a hundred thousand a week. But that also 81 00:04:57,000 --> 00:04:59,280 Speaker 1: meant that you could come up with all sorts of 82 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:01,760 Speaker 1: different desig lines for these things. They were really easy 83 00:05:01,800 --> 00:05:05,479 Speaker 1: to print on because they were paper and um it 84 00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:08,080 Speaker 1: really tied in nicely. I think another reason why they 85 00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:11,120 Speaker 1: took off as a fat um because they were They 86 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:14,599 Speaker 1: came along at a time when commercialism was big in art, 87 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:17,719 Speaker 1: when pop art was becoming a thing, when op art 88 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:21,880 Speaker 1: was really established. Like those big, bold, chunky, um colorful, 89 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:25,480 Speaker 1: weird prints. UM, all of these things were just ready 90 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:28,080 Speaker 1: made to be put on to print it onto a 91 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:31,839 Speaker 1: paper dress. That's right. If you think of Andy Warhol, 92 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:36,120 Speaker 1: then you're on the right track. Because they had uh 93 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:41,240 Speaker 1: Campbell soup dresses. They had jolly green giant can vegetable dresses. 94 00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:45,760 Speaker 1: I mean just literally look up image search paper dresses 95 00:05:45,839 --> 00:05:49,120 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties and you'll see candy bars, You'll see the 96 00:05:49,200 --> 00:05:53,280 Speaker 1: yellow pages, um, like you name it. Kind of any 97 00:05:53,760 --> 00:05:56,400 Speaker 1: um graphic print that you could print on a poster 98 00:05:56,720 --> 00:05:59,640 Speaker 1: they were putting on dresses. Yeah. There was one big, big, 99 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:04,880 Speaker 1: giant Bob Dylan face, which is pretty cool. Richard Nixon 100 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:07,400 Speaker 1: had one, which is like the opposite of what the 101 00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:10,480 Speaker 1: paper dresses were all about. Bobby Kennedy had one which 102 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:14,240 Speaker 1: was much more in line with it. UM. The that 103 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:16,440 Speaker 1: that green giant one I thought was pretty cute. It 104 00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:20,599 Speaker 1: was it was um. The tunic that the jolly green 105 00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:23,800 Speaker 1: Giant wore that leafy tunic. That's what the that's what 106 00:06:23,839 --> 00:06:27,200 Speaker 1: the dress looked like. Um, what else was there, Chuck? 107 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:32,120 Speaker 1: I could see these coming back now, Uh yeah, right. 108 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:35,480 Speaker 1: If they were recyclable, biodegradable, all that stuff, I could 109 00:06:35,520 --> 00:06:37,600 Speaker 1: totally see it. But that was one of the things, 110 00:06:37,600 --> 00:06:40,600 Speaker 1: like nobody cared about that stuff in in nineteen sixty six. 111 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:42,760 Speaker 1: It was you can put these things on, you can 112 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:44,240 Speaker 1: buy them for cheap, you can wear him a few 113 00:06:44,279 --> 00:06:46,560 Speaker 1: times and you throw them away. And they were like 114 00:06:46,839 --> 00:06:50,520 Speaker 1: really um like it was. It was such a big 115 00:06:50,560 --> 00:06:53,880 Speaker 1: fad that people were starting to rethink how we like 116 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:57,919 Speaker 1: do things like travel. Like apparently hotel chains we're having 117 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:01,520 Speaker 1: meetings about how they were going to start selling entire 118 00:07:01,640 --> 00:07:04,279 Speaker 1: lines of paper clothing so that when you went to 119 00:07:04,320 --> 00:07:06,560 Speaker 1: a hotel or like a resort or something for like 120 00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:09,760 Speaker 1: a week, you didn't pack a suitcase. You just showed up, 121 00:07:10,040 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 1: bought whatever clothes you needed out of their gift shop 122 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:14,600 Speaker 1: and that's what you wore, and you threw it away 123 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:16,440 Speaker 1: and then you put the clothes that you arrived and 124 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:19,080 Speaker 1: back on to go home. And that was it. Easy peasy, 125 00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:22,560 Speaker 1: beautiful covered girl. Yeah, it's kind of funny to look 126 00:07:22,680 --> 00:07:25,880 Speaker 1: like every great idea in history has so many bad 127 00:07:25,920 --> 00:07:30,200 Speaker 1: ideas attached to it. I feel like like people won't 128 00:07:30,200 --> 00:07:33,320 Speaker 1: want to wear their own clothes that they shopped for 129 00:07:33,520 --> 00:07:36,880 Speaker 1: and like just for the benefit of leaving their suitcase 130 00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:39,960 Speaker 1: at home. Uh, that one didn't take off. They did 131 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:43,440 Speaker 1: make other clothes that they made men's suits. Uh you can. 132 00:07:43,480 --> 00:07:45,000 Speaker 1: There are kind of hard to find images of these, 133 00:07:45,040 --> 00:07:48,480 Speaker 1: but I finally dug one up. Um it looks like 134 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:53,120 Speaker 1: a wrinkled napkin. Basically, Yeah, this dirt we've stuff. You 135 00:07:53,480 --> 00:07:56,320 Speaker 1: almost certainly experienced it anytime they put a bib on 136 00:07:56,400 --> 00:07:59,560 Speaker 1: you at the dentist for like a cleaning that is 137 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:03,040 Speaker 1: basic derwee if not actual dirahweave, it's it's like a 138 00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:06,720 Speaker 1: competitor todrahweeve. That's that's what these dresses were made out of. Yeah, 139 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:09,560 Speaker 1: get they get very wrinkly. But again, in terms of 140 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:11,720 Speaker 1: these young women who were sort of out on the 141 00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:14,320 Speaker 1: town and these things, there were a bunch of benefits. 142 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:16,920 Speaker 1: They could they always had something new that they could 143 00:08:16,920 --> 00:08:20,000 Speaker 1: put on, which was a big deal. They could, uh, 144 00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:23,040 Speaker 1: they could tell mom to go stick that selling machine 145 00:08:23,080 --> 00:08:25,520 Speaker 1: where the sun don't shine. Because I've got tape in 146 00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:28,560 Speaker 1: a pair of scissors. I can alter this thing however 147 00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:31,040 Speaker 1: I want. I can. I can be a little risque 148 00:08:31,200 --> 00:08:33,319 Speaker 1: and cut the cut the belly out of one of them, 149 00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:36,480 Speaker 1: or cut a really low back if I want to. Uh. 150 00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:38,160 Speaker 1: It was sort of, you know, the time of the 151 00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:41,680 Speaker 1: sexual revolution. So all of these different things came together 152 00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:45,480 Speaker 1: to make these super popular. Yes, And like any good fad, 153 00:08:45,559 --> 00:08:48,280 Speaker 1: it ran its course and just went away almost as 154 00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:51,280 Speaker 1: fast as it came on and let quickly people saying 155 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:55,920 Speaker 1: what just happened? Right, But this was one of those 156 00:08:55,960 --> 00:08:58,120 Speaker 1: fads where a lot of people have some ideas about 157 00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:01,920 Speaker 1: why it went away so quickly. There's some pretty good theories. Um. 158 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:04,080 Speaker 1: One of the first ones is that they were almost 159 00:09:04,080 --> 00:09:09,600 Speaker 1: exclusively um super mod mini dresses, and those were no 160 00:09:09,679 --> 00:09:12,040 Speaker 1: longer in by the end of the sixties. They were 161 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:15,080 Speaker 1: super in in nineteen sixty six, but they were not 162 00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:17,959 Speaker 1: so in. It's a sixty eight or sixty nine, right, 163 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:20,840 Speaker 1: that was a big one. Yeah, there's not a lot 164 00:09:20,920 --> 00:09:23,520 Speaker 1: you can do style wise, but that is one shape 165 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:25,920 Speaker 1: that you could definitely make a paper dress out of 166 00:09:25,960 --> 00:09:28,240 Speaker 1: and it and it just happened to be popular for 167 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:31,320 Speaker 1: a few years. There was also there's a guy named 168 00:09:31,400 --> 00:09:37,360 Speaker 1: Jonathan Walford who I saw interviewed in I believe, Oh 169 00:09:37,400 --> 00:09:39,920 Speaker 1: I don't remember. But also, by the way, shout out 170 00:09:39,960 --> 00:09:44,680 Speaker 1: to History's Dumpster Textiles and context Groovy History and Timeline 171 00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:48,480 Speaker 1: for giving me these, uh, these ideas. Um. But in 172 00:09:48,559 --> 00:09:52,000 Speaker 1: one of those, um, Jonathan Walford, who's a curator of 173 00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:55,320 Speaker 1: the Fashion History Museum in Ontario, he's like, probably the 174 00:09:55,320 --> 00:09:57,160 Speaker 1: biggest reason why they went away is because they were 175 00:09:57,160 --> 00:10:03,240 Speaker 1: not particularly comfortable to wear. No, they don't look super comfortable. Um, 176 00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:05,840 Speaker 1: and like I said, they get really really wrinkly, So 177 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:08,960 Speaker 1: it's it's sort of a one night affair, I would imagine. Um, 178 00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:12,400 Speaker 1: the other kind of downside, there's always been terrible men 179 00:10:13,040 --> 00:10:16,080 Speaker 1: and men got into a habit at parties of like, oops, 180 00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:19,200 Speaker 1: I spilled my drink all over your dress. That's now 181 00:10:19,240 --> 00:10:21,960 Speaker 1: like a dissolving in front of my eyes. Sorry a 182 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:25,839 Speaker 1: boomer would do that. Yeah, no way. So that was 183 00:10:25,880 --> 00:10:28,400 Speaker 1: another one too. But um, one of the ones that 184 00:10:28,440 --> 00:10:31,120 Speaker 1: you like in almost any article you'll ever find about 185 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:33,839 Speaker 1: paper dresses that explain why they went away is that 186 00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:38,160 Speaker 1: people became much more environmentally conscious a little bit that's 187 00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:40,560 Speaker 1: entirely possible that that was a big driver of it. 188 00:10:40,600 --> 00:10:42,760 Speaker 1: You know, the first Earth Day was in nineteen seventy, 189 00:10:42,920 --> 00:10:45,640 Speaker 1: so that was around the time these things faded out. 190 00:10:45,720 --> 00:10:48,240 Speaker 1: So it probably would have seemed pretty ghost to wear, 191 00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:51,720 Speaker 1: like a disposable, plastic paper dress that you were going 192 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:54,320 Speaker 1: to throw away after a couple of wars. But I 193 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:58,240 Speaker 1: saw some articles somewhere that said, that may be true, 194 00:10:58,320 --> 00:11:00,880 Speaker 1: but the stuff that we replaced it with is not 195 00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:04,600 Speaker 1: much better, because it's almost as disposable. It's much more 196 00:11:04,720 --> 00:11:07,640 Speaker 1: durable than a paper dress. But we throw our clothes 197 00:11:07,679 --> 00:11:10,040 Speaker 1: away way more than we probably should. And I thought 198 00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:11,959 Speaker 1: that was a pretty good ending for this short stuff, 199 00:11:11,960 --> 00:11:14,679 Speaker 1: don't you think. Yeah, And when you know, when we 200 00:11:14,679 --> 00:11:16,319 Speaker 1: were talking about if they could do this today to 201 00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:20,600 Speaker 1: make them out of recycling materials and recyclable, they would 202 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:22,559 Speaker 1: also have to do a comparison that said, by the way, 203 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:25,320 Speaker 1: the thing you're wearing had this sort of impact on 204 00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:29,200 Speaker 1: the environment. By the way, well look for chuck and 205 00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:33,440 Speaker 1: iron matching Canadian tuxedos made out of paper in the 206 00:11:33,480 --> 00:11:38,800 Speaker 1: near future someday. Don't spill your drink on me, uh, 207 00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:42,040 Speaker 1: And that's it everybody, of course, for short Stuff, which 208 00:11:42,080 --> 00:11:47,480 Speaker 1: means short Stuff is out. Stuff you Should Know is 209 00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:50,360 Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts my 210 00:11:50,400 --> 00:11:53,680 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 211 00:11:53,800 --> 00:12:00,560 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.