Paper dolls

Paper Fashion is curated by Vassilis Zidianakis of the Atopos Greek Cultural Organization in Athens, which combines innovative fashion, design and art in new and surprising ways. For their Art and Technology in Fashion project, they collected more than 400 paper dresses from the 1960s, when the American Scott Paper Company kick-started the trend of producing disposable frocks as a promotional gimmick.

Scott Paper’s (still an industry leader today) creative marketing soon extended its influence all the way to Europe, where paper dresses turned into a hype that forced companies to develop materials that looked like paper, but were stronger. Enter Tyvek, which had been developed by DuPont in the mid-1950s. With a look and feel of paper but still water resistant, the synthetic soon made its way into the fashion industry.

The collection of dresses in Paper Fashion is a wild, colourful free-for-all, but the exhibition goes further to trace the origins of paper in fashion: Japanese paper garments from the Edo (1603-1868) and Meiji (1868-1912) periods and some historical Chinese examples. They prove that the link between paper and fashion is longer and stronger than any 1960s consumerist craze.

The original version of this exhibition debuted in Athens two years ago. When Kaat Debo, director of MoMu, was invited to write a contribution for the exhibition’s catalogue, she was pleasantly surprised to find Belgian designers among the participating artists.

Designer duo AF Vandevorst, for instance, was inspired by so-called “poor” materials such as paper and cardboard for their fall 2003 and spring 2004 collections, while Dirk Van Saene’s spring 1999 collection held several skirts and dresses in crepe paper. For fall 1997, Walter Van Beirendonck turned to Tyvek to create his imaginative ensembles. And Antwerp designer Anne Kurris started her career creating paper dresses for children.

In fact, from the Cyprus-born experimental designer Hussein Chalayan to the classic Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, and from minimalist Helmut Lang to the king of pleats Issey Miyake, all have used paper to create their fashions. Back in the States, paper dresses seemed made to order for pop icon Andy Warhol, who couldn’t resist transferring his iconic Campbell’s Soup design to a line of them. Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, meanwhile, lent his poem Uptown NY to graphic designer Harry Gordon for its very first printing on a paper dress.

Never a museum for remaining static, MoMu invited the conservation and restoration department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp to demonstrate its work live. Every Tuesday in March, April and May, their studio in the centre of the exhibition demonstrates how rare objects from the Atopos Collection, such as a Japanese paper kimono and paper flight attendants’ uniforms from the 1960s, are restored to their original glory.

And because all paper creativity tends to be contagious – not to mention affordable – MoMu has organised workshops for both students and adults. Explore Paper! first inspires participants so they can move on to the atelier of the MoMu for the Passion for Paper workshop, where you can make your own paper dress or T-shirt.

And then there’s an unlikely collaboration: Since its beginnings in the 1920s, the French mail order company La Redoute’s battle cry has been: “Play with fashion”. Paper dresses fit right in with its proclamation that fashion shouldn’t be taken too seriously and should be accessible to everyone.

So for this occasion, the fashion outlet asked both Van Saene and Van Beirendonck to each design a special paper dress. Limited edition of both are for sale on the website of La Redoute and at MoMu. For €60, you get a unique souvenir of this extraordinary exhibition. And, unlike many of the throw-away designs of the 1960s, they’re made from washable materials, so you can enjoy them again and again.