APPLIED ART : COSTUME

Title: Souper dress
Object Name: Dress
Date Made: late 1960's
late 1960's
Description: 'Paper' dress, (80% celulose, 20% cotton) with all over 'Campbell's soup print. Sleeveless and collarless, the rounded low neck and armholes bound in black bias binding. No fastening. Stick on printed black on white paper label 'THE SUPER DRESS' with care instructions. Paper dress printed with Andy Wahol's 'Campbell's Soup' design late 1960s. In the 1960s, pop art was one of the most widely disseminated art styles, and was seen on everything from clothing to interior design to graphic art. The simple shapes of the dresses of the time made them particularly suitable to carry the designs of artists like Any Warhol. For a time the development of truly 'throwaway' paper clothes which could be cheaply mass produced and disposed of after a few times of wear was thought to be the direction in which fashion might go. This dress, although cheap, would have therefore made the ewarer appear to be at the 'cutting edge' of both art and fashion. From exhibition label 'Grand Designers' When Andy Warhol had his first exhibition in 1962, '32 Soup Cans' was his iconic piece and illustrated the power of mass production. Although this dress does not carry a designer label, it is an important and significant piece of 1960s design. Using Warhols famours multiple print, it is made of paper and in an age obsessed with a 'throw-away' culture, this dress shows the influence of design experimentation in both art and fashion.
Materials: Manmade cellulose & cotton
Catalogue Number: BELUM.T3668
Copyright: National Museums NI

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