By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — Like many great things, it all started with toilet paper: In the spring of 1966, the Scott Paper Company, a major manufacturer of disposable household paper goods, launched a promotion for its colorful new line of bathroom tissue, napkins, paper towels, and other products. Along with a couple of proofs-of-purchase, customers could redeem a mail-order coupon for a preposterous new concept, a paper dress. The advertisements offered two designs, a red paisley bandana pattern or a...

Paper Dresses and Psychedelic Catsuits: When Airline Fashion Was Flying High

By Lisa Hix — Today, travel by airplane can feel like a dreary slog. You have to get up too early and stand in long lines, subjected to other people’s screaming babies and rowdy children. The security line requires an awkward juggling act of bags, coats, laptops, and shoes. Then, you get squeezed into a cramped plane cabin, where you must breathe recycled air for hours on end, subsist on soda and pretzels for dinner, and have limited access to a bathroom for half the flight as the plane bumps through...

Could the Clothes on Your Back Halt Global Warming?

By Lisa Hix — What comes to mind when you think of vintage clothing? It’s probably those untouchably cool hipsters who seem transported from another time, or the fashionista who’s always got one piece that makes her outfit pop. You might think of quality, as old clothes are often better made than modern ones. Cultural nostalgia is everywhere these days, but if the item came from a family member, the nostalgia gets personal, bringing back a flood of memories. “When people give clothing away to Goodwill...

Leading the Charge Against Casual Style, Armed With Antique Clothes and a Bike

By Lisa Hix — Tziporah Salamon is used to being photographed—by everyone from New York City tourists to famous "New York Times" street-fashion photographer Bill Cunningham. She's impossible for shutterbugs to resist, when they catch her riding around the city on her turquoise Bianchi, often a symphony of lush colors, decked head-to-toe in exquisite, embroidered, antique fabrics. Salamon also caught the eye of 30-year-old photographer Ari Seth Cohen, who made waves in the fashion world when he launched his...

Good Girls and Bad Boys: How to Achieve That Cool '50s Rockabilly Look

By Maribeth Keane and Brad Quinn — Jayne Mansfield is buried in my hometown. You could drive past the cemetery and see her heart-shaped headstone from the road. We had our own historical society, a tiny little museum, if you can even call it that. I remember going on a class trip there once. Some of her things were displayed, like long sequined cocktail dresses and some of her little personal effects. That stayed with me into my adult years: “Wow, as cheesy as my little hick town is, Jayne Mansfield is buried...

Dress Hound Cherie Federau Explains How She Makes Vintage Work for Her

By Maribeth Keane and Jessica Lewis — I’ve pretty much always been a little bit fashion-nutty, ever since I was about 16 years old and I discovered Vogue. I started like a lot of other people, buying vintage to recreate the looks that I saw but couldn’t afford as a teenager. Then slowly over the years, as my hobby turned into more of an obsession, I became interested in the designers behind the labels and it just snowballed from there. Everyone I knew was constantly coming to me to dress them and lend them vintage clothes....