FASHION + ART | »Souper Dress« In the Style of Andy Warhol (+ Lily Tomlin on Campbell’s Soup)

Andy Warhol (United States of America 1928–1987)

No. 6 from Campbell’s Soup 1 1968 (detail)
a series of ten colour screenprints
impression 156 from an edition of 250
91.8 x 61.3 x 3.8 cm
Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth, Australia

Andy Warhol (United States of America 1928–1987)

Campbell’s Soup 1 1968 stencil colour screenprint

Impression: 150/250
Edition: edition 250, 26 artist’s proofs A-Z
sheet (each) 91.8 h x 61.3 w cm
The Poynton Bequest 2006
Accession No: NGA 2006.859.1-11
© Andy Warhol. Licensed by ARS & VISCOPY, Australia

JUICE? ART.

ART? JUICE.

Andy Warhol Campbell’s Tomato Juice Box, 1964. Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on wood, 25.4 x 48.3 x 24.1 cm. Museum of Modern Art, New York.

“Souper Dress” in the style of Andy Warhol, ca. 1966. Although it doesn’t look Space-Agey, this disposable dress made of screen-printed tissue, wood pulp and rayon mesh with binding tape, with label The Souper Dress, epitomizes a certain aspect of the Space Age. This is another Christie’s auction piece that sold for ₤1,625 in 2008 and is the ultimate dress for a disposable culture.

SOURCE: GlamourSplash, which has more details about the paper dress fad of the sixties

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MORE ABOUT THE “SOUPER DRESS” or «When Haute Couture collides with Campbell’s Soup».

Apparently, back in the day, eating canned soup earned rewards.

Two labels and $1.00 got you the dress. Whoever sold theirs to Christie’s got quite a nice return on investment for their “Souper.”

Click on the image above to read the fine print about how to get your own “Souper Dress.”

Oops … the offer expired on 31 March 1968.

But back to Christie’s. This “dress” cost two cans of Campbell’s soup plus $1.00 back in 1968. Forty years later, someone paid £1,625 for it.

I’m not sure who’s ripping off who here. Is Andy ripping off Campbell’s or is Campbell’s Soup ripping off Andy or is Christie’s ripping off its customers? After all, the dress, whilst labelled “in the style of,” had nothing to do with the pop art maestro, yet his name probably sold the piece. Fashion and art are both strange worlds, indeed.

And then there’s the weird world of soup …

ANDY WARHOL’S ART AS VIEWED BY TRUDY (AKA LILY TOMLIN)

My space chums say they’re learning so much about us since they’ve begun to time-share my trances.

They said to me,

‘Trudy, the human mind is so-o-o strange.’

I told ’em,

‘That’s nothin’ compared to the human genitals.’

…

We think so different. They find it hard to grasp some things that come easy to us, because they simply don’t have our frame of reference.

I show ’em this can of Campbell’s tomato soup.

I say,

‘This is soup.’

Then I show ’em a picture of Andy Warhol’s painting of a can of Campbell’s tomato soup.

I say,

‘This is art.’

‘This is soup.’

‘And this is art.’

Then I shuffle the two behind my back.

‘Now what is this?’

No, this is soup and this is art!

– Jane Wagner, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, 1986: 29.