The Xerox Dress

In 2006, I was working as a graphic designer creating print samples for the printer company, Xerox. My job was to create designs that showed off the color and detail of each new machine. Sounds exciting, huh? Well, I actually loved this job, which when I look back surprises me. I am not much of a corporate job person. But then, I have always loved making something out of nothing, and every sample was an opportunity to create something new.

One day, the photographer I was collaborating with had an idea. What if we photographed a woman wearing a dress made entirely from Xerox prints? We started tossing around names of local designers we might hire. Maybe a design student would take it on.

Then it hit me, all at once. I needed to make this dress myself.

So I did. I designed the prints, ran them through the printer, and with my hot glue gun in hand, shaped them into a gown, learning as I went. When the photographs came back, that dress became one of the most talked-about print samples we had created.

It also sparked something in me. This dress was just the beginning. I wanted to make dresses that could move down a runway. And just for reference, back in 2006, Project Runway had not yet made paper dresses on their show. ;-)

Papier Couture by Lia Griffith: Abundance
Papier Couture by Lia Griffith: Peace
Papier Couture by Lia Griffith: Passion
Papier Couture by Lia Griffith: Creativity
Papier Couture by Lia Griffith: Freedom
Papier Couture by Lia Griffith: Illumination

The Venus Collection

Over the next few months, I created seven gowns celebrating seven energies of the feminine archetypes. I called it the Venus Collection.

Each gown began with the words, abundance, passion, freedom, peace, creativity, mystery and illumination. I then layered images of original artwork from a dear friend with photographs and typography that were printed on copy paper with the Xerox printer. Using a mannequin as a dress form I started hand cutting and sculpting the flat paper to create a full flowing gown. I still remember the glue burns on my fingers. But, I also remember being completely lost in the joy of it. And, I was having the time of my life.

When I finished making the collection the gowns were photographed with a complete crew of models, hair stylists, makeup artists, and photographers all joining me in a creative collaboration. The photos were then printed into a beautiful booklet, compliments of a local printer. Then the collection came to life as they were danced down a runway by ballet dancers, moving to live music, paper moving the way I envisioned. After that runway event, the collection was installed in an art museum, the gowns standing on mannequins surrounded by the photographs, the original artwork, and the film of that runway performance.

Looking back now, I am not sure I would have the energy to orchestrate that series of events again. And isn't it curious that the idea of a paper dress that started out as a print sample grew into a mini collection that landed in a fine art museum?

Papier Couture Vogue Dress

What started with curiosity

After the initial runway show and gallery event, I intended to have a burning ceremony and go on my merry way. Well, that did not happen. I was immediately asked to show my dresses at events and I also received commission requests for displays and marketing photos.

But one of my favorite dresses began with pure curiosity. I had a stack of old Vogue magazines and a question I could not let go of: what would all those glossy pages become if I gave them a new life as a gown? I called this dress ReVogue.

That curiosity dress found its moment when I was invited to show my work at Portland Fashion Week. For that show, I brought the original Venus Collection out of retirement, repairing each gown for one more walk down the runway.

Paper Dresses by Lia Griffith
Paper Dresses by Lia Griffith
Paper Dresses by Lia Griffith
Paper Dresses by Lia Griffith

After the show, the commissions continued. A retailer commissioned another magazine dress for a window display. Another one of my favorite dresses. And more requests followed, each one a new adventure.

Re Vogue Paper Dress by Lia Griffith
Dahlia Papier Couture by Lia Griffith

One commission taught me something very important about sculpting with paper. At least the way I had been designing these dresses.

I was asked to create a dress for an ad campaign that was filmed poolside with the gown in motion. On camera, the paper dress looked beautiful, as lovely as if it had been made from fabric.

But the video missed all of the detail I so carefully wove into this dress. Even looking back at all of these dresses, there is so much detail that is lost when you can't see them up close.

That was the lesson those commissions left me with. Paper dresses can look beautiful from a distance or on camera, but the details that I loved can only be seen when you can reach out and touch the paper itself. I did not know it yet, but that truth was already pointing me toward work you could hold in your own two hands.

Mirasol Dress Sketch by Lia Griffith
Papier Couture by Lia Griffith: Mirasol Butterfly

The Crepe Paper Dresses

Ten years passed between that first Xerox dress in 2006 and the next set of dresses. And, in between, my whole creative life rearranged itself from being a graphic designer to a craft designer who specialized in paper.

But I am jumping ahead here, and need to back up to show you the bridge of this story.

A few years before I started this craft business, I became the creative director at a wedding stationery company and started a DIY wedding blog, showing brides how to craft beautiful things for their own celebrations. I had already made paper flowers for the dresses, but now I wanted to design a rose that anyone could make. My first paper flower was born... a rose, cut from copy paper, with a watercolor design that I printed on a Xerox machine. Of course it was.

It was a simple template that anyone could recreate by following my step-by-step photo tutorial and video.


Original paper rose by Lia Griffith
Paper Rose Wedding Bouquet by Lia Griffith
Paper Rose Corsage by Lia Griffith

That little rose multiplied into more paper flowers. The wedding blog grew enough that I spun off to create my own handcrafted lifestyle blog. And within a few years the printer paper flowers evolved into crepe paper, which as you know, has taken on a life of its own.

So in 2016, when we formed our partnership with Werola, the German manufacturer that has made gorgeous crepe paper for generations, I knew exactly how to celebrate. I made two final gowns, sculpted entirely from our new crepe paper. And after all those years of dresses leading me to flowers, it just felt like a full circle.

Chiffon Crepe Paper Dress by Lia Griffith

The first dress, made from Chiffon Extra-Fine crepe, traveled to Germany and back, for my daughter Emily to wear at Creativeworld, the largest arts and crafts trade show.

The second was made from the Aubergine Extra-Fine crepe and we took it to the craft trade show in New York, again with Emily wearing the dress in front of our booth.

I found these photos on my phone and wanted to show you some behind the scenes of the process of making this dress. To be honest, it was a bit easier than the copy paper, since both of the crepe dresses were made from the extra-fine crepe paper. This paper has the feel of fabric and flows easily.

Lia Griffith Paper Dress Making
Lia Griffith Paper Dress Making
Lia Griffith Paper Dress Making
Lia Griffith Paper Dress Making
Lia Griffith Paper Dress Making
Lia Griffith Paper Dress Making
Lia Griffith Paper Dress Making
Lia Griffith Paper Dress Making
Lia Griffith Paper Dress Making
Aubergine Crepe Paper Dress by Lia Griffith
Lia Griffith Paper Dress Making

That was the end of the dresses and the beginning of crepe paper flowers. What started in 2006 with a printer and an impractical idea now fills my studio, my books, and the hands of crafters all over the world. Every paper flower I design carries a little DNA of these paper dresses.

I still think about what those gowns taught me. It's not like me to make the impractical thing. I didn't know why I needed to build that first dress. I just knew I did.

You probably have a story like this too. Something you made before you knew why. A project with no purpose except that you loved making it. We're quick to call those "distractions" or "side tracks". But, what if they aren't? What if that project was the seed that created a root system, and everything you're making now grows from that random, impractical seed?

So there's my story. How my first paper dress led me to paper flowers. And if you're ready to start your own paper story, I invite you to start with a rose. Here are a few of my favorite rose projects that are a version of the first Xerox paper rose:

Roses for you to make

 Beginner  30min

Book Page Paper Rose Video Workshop

Make it
woman holding frosted paper rose bridal bouquet
 Intermediate  60min +

VIDEO: Frosted Paper Rose Bridal Bouquet

Make it
 Beginner  60min

Make a Paper Rose with Your Galentine! Video Workshop

Make it
Paper Roses in gold
 Beginner  60min

Gold Mini Paper Rose Pattern

Make it