Mars of Asheville Nixon campaign paper dress

Mars of Asheville opend as the Mars Hosiery Company in West Asheville, North Carolina in the 1940s. Founded by Morry Bard, the company produced women's hosiery and was the first company in the United States to make pantyhose.

In the 1960s, Bard's daughter Audrie ("Audie"), and her husband Bob Bayer, began working for the company. Bayer, an engineer, began development of disposable clothing. He originally created disposable underwear for soliders in Vietnam, but the material was not durable enough in testing, and the garmants caused chafing. Bayer changed to manufacturing paper dresses, taking advantage of a trend started by the Scott Paper Company.

In 1966, Scott created paper dresses as part of an advertising campaign for their full line of paper products. In less than a year, Scott sold half a million paper dresses for $1.00 a dress. In spite of the strong sales, Scott did not want to add fashion as a permanent line of business, leaving the paper garment market open for companies like Mars of Asheville.

With the popularity of paper garmants, Mars of Asheville began designing and selling a varity of paper dresses under the "Waste Basket Boutique" label. Audie Bard Bayer was responsible for designing a number of the paper dresses sold by Mars between 1966 and 1968. One of the most recognizeable dresses is the Yellow Pages dress, a dress printed in a pastiche of Yellow Pages advertisements with a tie collar. At their height, Mars of Asheville was filling 80,000 orders for paper dresses each week.

Asheville.com Community News. "Asheville Art Museum Hosts Lunchtime Gallery Talk with Audie & Bob Bay September 5." Asheville Community News 2007.https://www.asheville.com/news/aart0807.htmlMilling, Marla Hardee. "When Asheville Took Over the 1960s Paper Dress Fad." Blue Ridge Country, May/June 2017.https://blueridgecountry.com/newsstand/magazine/when-asheville-took-over-the-1960s-paper-dress-fad/Tutter, Catherine. "Woman’s “Yellow Pages” paper dress (American, about 1966)." Textiles in Context, July 27, 2018.https://textilesincontext.net/2018/07/27/womans-yellow-pages-paper-dress-american-about-1966/

Paper dresses were a short-lived fashion trend in the mid- to late-1960s. Disposable clothes derived from the cultural trends of the 1960s, incuding mass-production and consumerism, which favored the ephemeral over the durable. Paper dresses typically featured bright colors and bold patterns, even using pop art of the era to inspire different designs.

Paper dresses were cellulose-buffered cotton fabric. They were somewhat water and fire resistant and could be smoothed out with a cool iron but never washed. Being a low cost alternative to other forms of wardrobe, paper dresses became especially popular with the youth, allowing consumrs to try out new patterns and styles of dress without the same level of investment as traditional wardrobe.

Asheville.com Community News. "Asheville Art Museum Hosts Lunchtime Gallery Talk with Audie & Bob Bay September 5." Asheville Community News 2007.https://www.asheville.com/news/aart0807.htmlMilling, Marla Hardee. "When Asheville Took Over the 1960s Paper Dress Fad." Blue Ridge Country, May/June 2017.https://blueridgecountry.com/newsstand/magazine/when-asheville-took-over-the-1960s-paper-dress-fad/Tutter, Catherine. "Woman’s “Yellow Pages” paper dress (American, about 1966)." Textiles in Context, July 27, 2018.https://textilesincontext.net/2018/07/27/womans-yellow-pages-paper-dress-american-about-1966/