In his San Juan workshop, Designer Gonzalo Chavez, 36, a native New Yorker who calls himself Mr. Terp, has been painstakingly assembling pop-top rings into glittering dresses, vests, stoles, belts, miniskirts and maxiskirts—all resembling the mailed armor worn by warriors of the Middle Ages to ward off sword blows. Collecting the rings from rubbish heaps behind San Juan bars, Chavez files down their rough edges and crochets them together with silver thread...

The first pop-top garments were almost as stiff as their medieval counterparts. But Chavez has made them much more supple. "They fit like a second skin," he claims. "As you wear them, they change shape a little and mold themselves to the contours of the body." Rings differ too. Budweiser's rings are light and flexible, Miller High Life's are "soft," and Pepsi's provide a heavier, stiffer garment.

Begun on April 1, 1968, "Foreign Accent Service" was TWA's attempt to leverage its international image to attract passengers to its domestic U.S. flights. Certain longer-haul flights (such as New York - Los Angeles) were themed to create a foreign, cosmopolitan atmosphere. It could have been French, Italian, British or American (an inquisitive young visitor once asked our guide what was "foreign" about the American theme). To "brand" that experience, hostesses were outfitted in one of four appropriately themed uniforms, made from paper (that's right, paper). Hostesses donned the uniform prior to the flight and disposed of it when the flight was over...

These "wear once and dispose" dresses were designed as wrap-arounds, secured with velcro fasteners. Hostesses typically carried a pair of scissors and tape to adjust the length. The promotion was short-lived. Logistical problems involving coordination of the dresses with the flight's theme developed and supply problems meant later uniforms had to be constructed with a lighter-weight paper, which was more prone to tearing. Some senior hostesses were reluctant to wear the dresses, including legendary flight attendant, Ida Staggers. Ms. Staggers, hired in 1936, was not pleased with this promotional role. Despite a large financial outlay for logistics and advertising, the program died quietly, never making it past 1968.