In 1966, Mars Manufacturing Company produced its “Paint-your-own-dress”: a white dress, sold with a box of watercolours and a paintbrush. Andy Warhol was enlisted to promote this collection, by painting a dress for Nico, singer of The Velvet Underground. He silk-screened the word “FRAGILE” over it and signed it “Dali”.

Forty years later, another renowned American theatre director and visual artist, Robert Wilson (b. 1941), was commissioned by ATOPOS cvc to “Paint-his-own-dress”. “Lisa” was created by painting on a white paper dress made by Mars Manufacturing Company. The “Lisa” dress was named after Robert Wilson’s beloved friend Lisa de Kooning (1956 –2012), the daughter of painter Willem de Kooning.

”I have never designed anything like a paper dress. It was a surprise and a wonderful challenge… I wanted to do something that was fun, pop, that could be for a child or an adult”

Excerpt from a written interview to M. Pichou on the occasion of the article
“The ATOPOS RIPPING Project: a “new” life for dress objects ?” (COSTUME, volume 54, issue 2, 2020)