Paper Dress

Creating a Paper Dress is a great way to try your hand at wardrobe design.  It’s great because (#1) the materials are inexpensive(#2) you don’t necessarily need to know how to sew (#3) it’s trendy – all your new found fashion is eco friendly.  Over the years I have tried my hand at it in a literal, abstract, and artistic way.  From unique pieces for photography workshops with low budgets to green concept editorials to abstract avant garde pieces with amazingly unique textures and shapes. Contact me today to hire me for your next project!

The above piece is from a paper dresses set I did with Washington DC photographer, Monica True. It was published in numerous magazines internationally and Orlando Style here in the US.

When we created this, nude shoes were just taking off in Europe so we incorporated them.  The fabulous Kahlil Oliver was the hairstylist on this project and he brought the clean, sleek, and defined look we were going for to life in their hair. A wonderful compliment to the concept.

The two models from New York and Virginia did a great job ‘making the outfits work.’  It is not easy to wear such delicate paper dress pieces and give them a life, they did a fabulous job!

This is a great angle for Kahlil Oliver’s hair – beautiful!

One of the magazines this spread was featured in is called Fiori (Indonesia).  They featured our work as a main image for each section of their fashion magazine as well as their cover.

This is another image that was used in Fior for the main image of their Beauty section.

I did another series of paper dresses for the NAHA hair competition.  Faatemah Ampey contacted me to come to Minneapolis to be part of her NAHA team. She was sponsored by Aveda and won one of their categories the year prior.  It was  a great team to be part of, there was a lot of talent from the hair stylists, makeup artists, photographer, and models.  Below are the images from the set and these too were featured in a series of ( hair ) magazine editorials internationally and within the United States.

The photo above is my favorite, I loved making this newspaper dress because of the lines it created.

The dress above had extreme detail give to it. All the paper lines were going the same way to help give the dress a more definitive form, design, shape and structure.

The hair piece created for the model above was nicknamed the ‘breakfast bun,’ it was the strongest hair style in the group.

The newspaper dress above required A LOT of paper. I created it and wheeled it down to the studio from my work station on a bellhop stand.

Then, prior to these editorial I did a few other paper pieces for workshops. Below are two of the newspaper dresses I created for Michael Rosen’s workshops in Chicago. One is featuring model Courtney Brazelton and the other Kristina Savonek.

How does one even make a paper dress? That is a complicated question, it’s like asking someone how to make lunch.  The answer is different every time. Use your imagination, use your skill set, use your available tools and materials.

One of the friends I made over the year, Mersina, was coming into town. She is a kind soul from Sweden and a joy to work with. She was the model we used for a jewelry shoot that Michael Rosen and I did. I put her in one of my paper origami dresses.

I have another photographer friend, Kyle Camerer, who now shoots exclusively for GoPro.  Back in the day we did this piece with model Melissa Kimbro. She has stunning facial structure and high cheekbone features.  I pushed for the extreme contract in color for the lighting, I love this newspaper dress photo because of it!

Newspaper Dress, New Paper Dress

The photo below was an outfit I made at the Duke Morse workshop in Dallas, Texas.  They had photographers come in from all over Texas to meet me and shoot one of my designs. It was a pleasure to be in such great company!

The paper dress below was used for a Michael Rosen workshop in Chicago.

It was then ‘trashed’ to create the image below. I took off the top layer to expose the more free flowing ‘poofy’ part of the dress – the under layer.

I hope you enjoyed my paper dresses! If you have any upcoming projects or are looking for an eco-designer / visual merchandiser / someone creative to bring your idea to life – you found her! Please contact me with details about your project and I can respond with rates and booking information.