Wednesday 17 August 2011

Paper Dress Vintage

Paper Dress Vintage is a store I stumbled across on one of my night adventures in London. I heard that a friend of mine was playing with The Night Jars of a shop front window in a vintage store and so I headed to Paper Dress Vintage and I was a very very happy bunny! Not only was it a store filled with vintage delights but also I got to watch one fantastic band. After the band played I turned around and headed straight for the racks to find myself a hidden gem. It is a store filled with delights dating from the 1900 - 80's and it helps that all racks are labeled with different eras which makes shopping far less complicated and much easier.  

Paper Dress Vintage was opened by Hannah Turner Voakes in September 2007 and has since established itself as a ‘must-go’ on the East London Vintage scene. I must mention here that whenever you pop into Paper Dress Vintage, you will always find Hannah dressed in a dazzling dress and a wonderful smile that puts you even in a better mood to shop. 
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Hannah named the boutique after a fad from the 60’s – the paper dress.
In 1966, Scott Paper Company invented the paper dress, intended as a marketing tool. For one dollar, women could buy the dress and also receive coupons for Scott paper products. The paper dress wasn’t an invention meant to be taken seriously, but women surprised the company by ordering half a million of these dresses in under a year. People were demanding more convenience and instant gratification. What was more instantly gratifying than a dress you could hem yourself with only a pair of scissors, or a dress that could simply be thrown out if it got dirty?
As the trend took off, companies began to experiment with style and fabric, adding other materials to the paper to make a sturdier garment that could even be washed. Mars Manufacturing Company invented a wide range of paper dresses, from a basic A-line style, to a paper evening dress, to a full paper wedding gown, all for under $20. Other companies followed suit, inventing such things as paper slippers, paper bell-bottom suits and waterproofed paper raincoats and bikinis. Even Andy Warhol got in on the trend, creating a design based on his famous Campbell’s soup can print.
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PhotobucketThis is one of the wonderful dresses I bought on the night and I can easily say it is a dress that I always wear as it flows so beautifully and it is probably the only piece I have in my wardrobe that has red in it. 




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You can also have a little pitstop while shopping and have a good cup of coffee (which I find hard to find in London town) or a tea. They also make wonderful brownies and oh have I mentioned for all you cupcakes fans, Paper Dress Vintage also has cupcake decoration events AHHHHMAZING! 
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I am not a very big fan of revamping vintage designs or creating vintage pieces with a modern twist for the simple reason of its originality. I like the idea of wearing a garment with history, a story to tell. The idea of reproducing a piece feels like somehow memories are being slashed away from the garment. In saying that, the wonderful Hannah  and her very creative team worked closely together to create the Paper Collection using exclusive vintage fabrics adorned with vintage trimmings, all sourced from extensive treasure hunts and created this collection using hand crafted, traditional techniques. If you would like to see their collection, I recommend that you visit Paper Dress's site as I have found it to be one of the easiest fashion based sites to navigate. I sometimes find fashion labels create websites that are far too complicated and make the whole idea of online shopping and fashion surfing all too unbearable and so a good website is definitely something to boast about!
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Or even better, you can pay Paper Dress Vintage a visit, find your self a vintage gem. 

Paper Dress Vintage 
114- 116 Curtain Rd 
London EC2A 3AH

1 comment:

  1. That dress looks amazing on you, I haven't been to Paper Dress Vintage before but will be checking it out. x

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