Jason Kearns melds beauty and couture for a great cause (breast cancer awareness) with his Cashmere collection.
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Bathroom tissue should be cushy for the tushy, but what else is it good for? Besides TP-ing a rival’s home for a few wicked laughs, toilet paper, bathroom tissue, or whatever you wish to call it, is seriously used for only one thing…or so we thought.
Kruger Paper Company’s Cashmere brand, with its super-soft, quilted, three-ply tissue, has opened our minds to at least one other sensuous use for its product: couture paper gowns. The company asked famed Canadian fashion designers to create Valentino-worthy dresses, all to raise money for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. To bring this paper-pleasing project to life, Kruger Paper tapped none other than the now famous tissue maestro, Jason Kearns, who agreed to create coifs for topnotch Canadian models and do the photo shoot to promote the Cashmere program while positioning the luxurious loo paper in a lavish light.
Kearns approached this daunting task with a mindset. “For me, the whole subject of breast cancer element of retro-chic,” he says. touches a nerve because my mother is a breast cancer survivor,” he explains in a quiet tone, as he remembers her personal struggle. “When I began planning the photo shoot, I knew that it had to be creative and worthwhile, fresh and alive, and filled with hope. And, above all, it needed to be so remarkable that people would be motivated to support breast cancer research throughout the year because the clock keeps ticking for all women suffering from this horrible disease.”
The moment Kearns saw the Cashmere dresses, images of “candy floss” danced across his mind. “I wanted to create coifs that were as fluffy as the whimsical designs,” he smiles. And while his hair confections did come together beautifully, the shoot threatened to leave a paper trail—literally! “You have no idea how heavy toilet paper really is,” he notes with awe. “The company provided the designers with hundreds of sheets of the stuff straight from the factory [before they’re cut up and put on rolls]. I was astounded at what the designers were able to do with this fragile fabric. But the resulting dresses were so heavy that seams separated with the slightest exertion. And when the models started to perspire under the hot lights, the frocks began disintegrating!” He then notes, “To do its job properly, toilet paper dissolves in water, you know.”
It does, indeed. And thanks to the Cashmere collection, we’re one step closer to flushing this terrible disease down the drain—for good.
—Jeryl E. Spear
