2019 TRASHION SHOW

2019 Chair: Naomi Spinak

Emcee: Lara J. Hansen, Ph.D., Chief Scientist and Executive Director EcoAdapt, Sustainable Bainbridge Board Member, Clothes-wearer

Lara wears clothes pretty much everyday. She also thinks about the impact of fashion on our global environment and the contribution of the fashion industry to climate change. But that is a professional hazard. Her qualifications for emcee include:

Mary Terry

My grandmother left me at her sewing machine when I was 8 years old , so I made a dress, no pattern, no help.  I have been a sewing addict ever since.  Sewing, dyeing, printing– let me at it.  I love covering furniture and have made 632 slipcovers.
I have a degree in Latin American history, and I do not know why.  I have been the state president of the National Organization for Women and on the  national board.
I owned Esther’s Fabrics for 13 years.  Then my best friend and I bought Dana’s Showhouse in 2007. Now we have Dana’s, furnish bainbridge and half of Danger!
With my husband , Frank Childers, we raised our three daughters Anne, Katy and Claire Childers on Bainbridge.

Photographer: Heather Gorman

Competition Categories:
Trashion Couture
Upcycled Ready-to-wear Fashion
Business Waste Challenge*

*BWC partners: The Traveler, Good Egg, Town and Country Market, Bon Bon, Woodward Middle School Lunch Program

Steering Committee: Diane Landry, Dawn Snider, Eileen Wold,
Deb Rudnick, Shirlee Tan

Lobby Display Featured Artists:
Baeven Hoit – dolls from repurposed objects
Stephen Schroeder – jewelry from junk
Joan Wells – handbags from upholstery scraps

Upcycled Craft Project: Rachel Knudson, Scrappy Art founder

Raffle: A marvelously mended, “the dog truly did eat it!,” sweater with swagger by the seamstress supreme herself, Naomi Spinak.  Brand new, all organic cotton, bamboo, and wool; women’s size medium.  Raffle tickets are $3 or 2/$5.

Other Lobby Displays:
The 365-day dress
Clothing buy & sell resource sheet
Clothing repair resource sheet

Textile Collection for Reuse & Recycling – Eagle Harbor High School fundraising project

Runway 2019

Ready to Wear

This category includes a few inspiration garments by the show committee that will not be competing for prizes.

1. Shirt-Circuited, Two dresses by Naomi Spinak-(NON- COMPETING GARMENT): Worn by Lilah Spinak and Audrey Rucker

Two dresses for 2 sisters from their dads’ button down shirts. Men’s dress shirts used to come with removable collar and cuffs since those were the parts to wear first. Now, collared dress shirts are made in one piece, and when the collar and cuffs wear, the shirt looks old but has plenty of wearable fabric for kids’ summer dresses. So here are 2 dresses from re-fashioned shirts, embellished with vintage lace and buttons. Live on, shirting!

2. Tennis Dress (NON COMPETING GARMENT) by Dawn Snider, modeled by Mei Lang

This tennis top and skirt are repurposed from three (3) Fila polo style uniform shirts used by adult ushers at a professional tennis tournament. The fabric is 100% polyester and is perfect for this young tennis player, allowing for fluid movement on the tennis court! The skirt was cut from the body of the shirts and the trim around the skirt was from the inside of the collars. The skirt also has shorts built into it for holding tennis balls. The top was re-sized down significantly from the original adult size and cap sleeves were designed rather than the typical short sleeves of a polo shirt.

The head visor is made from a soft piece of Styrofoam, covered in the shirt fabric to keep the sun out of your young player’s eyes. Advantage, Dawn!

3. Couch to Runway Getting Out Outfit designed by Naomi Spinak, worn by her daughter, 9 year old Mirit Spinak (NON COMPETING GARMENT)

What to do after a couch is reupholstered and there is leftover fabric? Or you cut out a coat for yourself and leave large scraps? Or a factory full of coats are cut out? Many textile projects produce lots of waste in the form of unused materials that are not in pieces long enough to easily cut out more adult sized garments (or another chair!). This pink upholstery fabric was so fun the artist knew she needed to use it, and there wasn’t enough for a jacket for herself. When she also received some moth-ridden cashmere sweaters from her cousin in Seattle, the motorcycle jacket was born. And of course, the dress needed to match. With the help of some leftover wool from a friend’s coat project, the outfit came together. She added a Rotary Auction zipper So now we have this too cool for school outfit for an almost 10 year old-from the Couch to the Runway

4. Poplar Coat designed by Susan Skalek, worn by Erin Hill

The coat is made from a coat that Susan made in the 1980s from wool.  She took that coat apart, remade it using a draped pattern, then dyed the wool, a lining fabric to match, and silk bias.  The velvet skirt was redesigned from a skirt purchased at a thrift store. The poplar tree, one of Thomas Jefferson’s favorite trees, inspired Susan to design this version of a 1790s riding coat and dye the fabric of the ephemeral green of the new spring leaves of that tree.  The back and sides of the coat are scattered with the new poplar leaves as if blown there by a spring storm. The lining was dyed with the same color as the jacket as was the silk bias. As with any dye project, it is always a surprise to see the final colors when each fabric takes up the dye in its own way.  The colors of the fabric are cohesive without being identical. The pattern for the jacket was developed by draping muslin on a dress form to find a pleasing shape that worked with the overall design of the men’s riding coat. The velvet skirt was made through pattern manipulation. She cut the pattern apart to add fabric that allowed her to gather the front of the skirt at the bottom to give it a draped look.  Susan’s goal when designing new garments from previously used fabric is to have an end result that is even more beautiful than the original garment. She strives to upcycle clothing that appears as if newly fashioned from new materials, but carries with it memories of the original garments.

5. The Rubik’s Cube: Clash of Time designed and worn by Suzanne Lundberg

 This upcycled dress represents the old and the new, the history and the future: The fusion of ancient tribe and interstellar travel. A basic jersey cotton t-shirt dress creates the base shape of this piece.  Various found and collected silk scarves of different shapes, sizes and patterns are sewn throughout the garmet, hiding the base layer. Next, reclaimed leather of sample swatches and off-cuts are added to create dimension and texture. Finally, hand-hammered, upcycled copper electrical wire is pressed into the leather spaces, creating an eccentric, cage-like visual. Matching statement earrings. Ready to wear, clearly, for your most casual trip to the grocery store….

Business Waste Challenge

1. Town and Country – Pride Of The West.

Designed by Catherine Rush partnering with Town and Country Market.

Modeled by Leah Applewhite

This design was created with waste from Town and Country Market. The artist met with Tony D’Onofrio, the Sustainability Director, and spoke about what T and C believes in. Two aspects stood out to her: Freshness and Community. After their talk, Tony showed her around behind the scenes. She chose tomato pallets, plastic mesh onion bags and a filmy plastic fabric that caught her eye stuffed in a garbage can. In keeping with the watchwords of Freshness and Community, Catherine created a fresh take on the all-important puffer jacket of the Pacific Northwest. The pants are made from a fabric she created layering the filmy fabric and onion bag mesh. Her model is a long-time resident and real estate agent here on the Island. She represents Community, as she was the first person Catherine met when she moved here last year.  

    2. Apocalyptic Lunch Lady by the Woodward Middle School FCCLA Club : partnering with Woodward’s Lunch Services

Designed by : Ashwin Osbual, Max Turkovich, Maxwell Richards, Carly Hart, Kate Lollman, Rochelle Olney, and Norah Pearce modeled by Norah Pearce.

Their adult mentor was teacher Meloni Courtway.

The Woodward Middle School Consumer Sciences Club presents a look at waste generated by lunch snacks. This formal gown, worn for serving lunch during the apocalypse, is made entirely of snack wrappers, milk cartons and cans salvaged from the lunchroom at Woodward Middle School during just five days of school. Many of the recovered cans, bags and cartons were retrieved after they were improperly recycled or trashed. The team of students who created this gown used glue, tape and found wires to fasten, as well as buttons made from milk cartons, and wrapped metal to adorn the crown. The bust is made of transformed milk cartons and metallic chip bag liner, and the skirt is made entirely of chip bags from two lunch periods. Misinformation and overconsumption are the reasons Apocalyptic Lunch Lady exists. The Consumer Sciences Club at Woodward hopes that students and families will consider ways to reduce their dependence on pre-packaged snacks. 

3. Bon Bon Fleur

Designed and modeled by Lyra Cromwell partnering with Bon Bon Candies

Bonbon Fleur was created in partnership with Bon-Bon Candies, a Bainbridge-based candy store. Inspiration for this outfit comes partially from the costuming of sundry Pacific Northwest theatre productions over the last several years. It is constructed primarily of silver and white shipping insulation material, with detailing made from a colorful assortment of candy wrappers, sticker backing sheets, milk carton seals, plastic bags, and bubble wrap.

4. Misao Dress,

Designed by Therese Kunzi-Clark partnering  with The Traveler

Modeled by Nina Clark

The Lonely Planet Publisher updates their popular Travel Guides yearly and replaces them with a current edition. In return the Traveler has to send then the book cover. They end up with many coverless outdated travel guides Therese decided to use for her entry in this year’s show.

As Therese was figuring out how to work with the travel book paper, her neighbor Jen introduced her to the Japanese Saori weaving. In Zen vocabulary, SAORI is the combination of the words ‘SAI’, meaning everything has its own individual dignity, and ‘ORI’, meaning weaving. SAORI is a contemporary hand weaving method founded by Misao Jo in 1969. She started weaving when she was 57 years old and created her own loom and style, free from the traditional concept and rules of weaving. She named her weaving style ‘SAORI’ in which anyone can express oneself freely regardless of age, gender, disability or intellectual aptitude. 

This concept resonated with the artist. So therefore she embarked on turning the colored pages of the travel books into weaving strips for the dress. The bolero jacket is made out of outdated sales flyers, that Therese put through the shredder and sewed together in a layering manner. The lining of the jacket comes from a cotton advertising banner. Accessories were made from book pages and other stuff like samples and trash that caught her eye. This was Therese’s first-time doing weaving. She is looking forward to turning other trash into woven treasures.

5. The Good Honeybee

Designed by Tyler Dawson-Arroyo partnering  with The Good Egg.

Modeled by Honeybee Sapphire

Using the trash from our local restaurant, the Good Egg, this dress was constructed using gold foil coffee bags, coffee filters dyed with vegetable juices, a garbage bag, and some black coffee straws. The idea behind this dress is not only to celebrate the wonderful coffee provided by IslandCraft from the  Good Egg but also to recognize the necessity of honeybees to our restaurants and ecosystems. Without the pollination done by our beloved honeybees, we would not be able to enjoy the coffee we love or the vegetables we need. So let’s hear it for our good honeybees, and for The Good Egg for providing the materials to create this floral themed, honeybee gown!  

Trashion Couture

1.The Dum Dum Dress

Designed by Gabriella Weis and Emma Kilby (STUDENTS), Modeled by Michaela Weis

The “Dum Dum Dress” was designed and created by 12 year olds Emma Kilby and Gabriella Weis. This dress was ultimately inspired by a child’s love of candy. Almost every child loves candy:  hard candy, chocolate, Tootsie Rolls, lollipops, you name it. But, the wrappers are almost always discarded. The creators thought that by acting on this theme of candy wrappers, they could demonstrate that trash does not have to be garbage.  Emma had been collecting Dum Dum wrappers for over a year. In no time, she had approximately one hundred wrappers, and within a few months, Emma’s sewing and their design produced a sturdy garment made up of Dum Dum wrappers and thread as the main materials They used soda tabs and fishing tippet to fasten together the back of the dress.  To complete their ensemble, they used hot glue, paper clips, and Dum Dum wrappers to create red origami crane earrings.  They also reused Emma’s shoes. Eventually, they came out with a colorful summer dress. Wear it in the sun . . . or while eating sweet treats!

2. The Plastic Bag Jellyfish Dress

Designed and modeled by Brigette Milne

The idea for this dress came from the very sad fact that when a sea turtle sees a plastic trash bag floating in the ocean, it sees a jellyfish dinner. This mistake can cause blockages in their digestive systems and eventual death. This dress is made out of fused and braided plastic bags. All the bags were sourced from shopping trips over the last few months, all acquired by family and friends of the artist.

A wearable reminder to bring your own bags whenever you shop!

3. Druidic Warrior of a Modern Era

conceptualized, created and modeled by Baeven Hoit
Using aluminum can tabs to make chain-maille is an idea which occurred to Baeven last year, and she started collecting the tabs immediately upon completion of Trashion 2018. Like addressing our greater environmental challenges, community was key to this project. Many people and a couple of organizations helped collect the several thousand tabs used in this piece. Although she knew from the outset that she wanted to use this material, the concept of the design itself came to her while thinking about the Druid class of characters in Dungeons & Dragons. Old Celtic myths of a great woman warrior and her companion, a Druidess who found power in nature, provided further inspiration. While the chain-maille suggests the spirit of a warrior, echoes of nature can be seen in the Druid’s antlered headdress. The headdress is constructed from recycled cardboard shipping boxes, paper grocery bags, used dryer sheets, and some old spackling and wall texture Baeven found in the garage. In addition to the tabs, the chain-maille is held together by approximately 3500 connector rings. Reminiscent of armor, the corset-style bodice is made from a patchwork of small sheets she took from recycled cans chosen for the pastel colors and nature motifs. The chain-maille is attached to the bodice to fashion the skirt and sleeves of the dress. To complete the ensemble, she took a pair of hand-me-down boots from her sister and painted them silver to match the aluminum. 

4. Pretty in Pink,

Designed by Rachel Marez

Modeled by 7 year old Penny Rogowski 

This two-piece dress is made from recycled bubble wrap as the base of the skirt and top and attached together with tape. The recycled tissue paper is folded over the waistband of the bubble wrap and taped down. The top of the dress is folded tissue paper into rows giving it a layered look. The pink flowers are made from folded and cut pieces of tissue paper and then taped to the skirt. The necklace and ring are also made of tissue paper and tape. The headband is a large rubber band with a tissue paper flower folded under it. In celebration of Easter, Penny is carrying a recycled Easter Basket.

5. Paper Things

Designed by Lily Lashmet

Modeled by Emily Lashmet

This dress is a statement on the costs of deforestation, despite this dress costing nothing. Made from paper bags and cardboard, covered in acrylic paint.  Deforestation is causing many animals to go extinct, destroying valuable ecosystems and resources. Climate change, clear-cutting, and logging result in 18.7 million acres of forest  disappearing annually. Trees are a huge carbon sink and are essential in mitigating climate change. With forests currently covering 31% of our globe; Can you imagine a world without trees? If deforestation continues at this rate there will be no trees in roughly 20 generations. While that seems like a long time, global warming projections  severely increase that rate. The Mayflower landed in 1620, just 15 generations ago.  With it came just 12 generations of mass clear-cutting for agriculture. And now we are here today, We need to “speak for the trees” before there aren’t any to speak for.

6. The Price is Right,

designed by Morissa Knudsen and Rachel Marez

modeled by Christine Driggers

This 2 piece ensemble was created with their  local grocery store receipts; an upcycled red plastic tablecloth (used as a red carpet for their oscar party); a reusable grocery bag; a coke can for the head piece; jewelry was made with soda can tabs; and a paper bag purse

The top was designed using the plastic grocery bag. Sides and bottom were cut to make the most of the material.  Packing tape was used to reinforce the sides of the cut edges of the bag where holes were made to lace up the sides  with recycled boot/shoestrings.

The skirt is a wrap design. The base of the skirt is the red plastic tablecloth.  We rolled the receipts using a classic # 2 pencil and attached the receipts with tape.  We used a binder clip for the closure.

The necklace; earrings, and bracelet are made with pull tabs from various canned drinks. The Headpiece is made out of a mini coke can, the purse is a paper bag. The foot pieces are made from pull tabs too.

 

7. Lunch Lady

designed by Brydie Dunstan and Anna Riley,

modeled by Maggie Dunstan:

This snack bags outfit is two part construction: Skirt and Bodice.

The bags are very durable until they have been pierced by the needle on a machine so the artists have reinforced the bags with 1 inch strips of paper grocery bag and used a zig-zag top stitch. The grocery bag strips have created a strong backing which you can on the underside of the ruffled skirt.

The artists could not figure out how to pleat or otherwise gather the bags at the top edge. The bags are not that flexible and would not “gather” as traditional fabric would. So they added an old t-shirt as the elastic waistband for the skirt.

For the top Anna and Brydie created texture by wrinkling the chip bags and opted to use the shiny inner surface facing out. Once again the seams are reinforced with paper grocery bag slips and top stitched with a zig-zag stitch.  Shoulder straps were made from the same grocery bags.

Zippers are used to make dressing easier.

A Sears Kenmore (circa 1970’”s) sewing machine (previously owned by Brydie’s great-grandmother) was used for construction.  

8.Melt Down 2019

Designed by Andy and Maya Rovelstad

modeled by Isabel Hoonan

We are in the midst of climate change.

Increased temperatures are changing the structure of everything

Even our clothes.

Melt Down-2019 is not only a symbol of global warming,

It is a testament to our struggling recycle industry.       

According to the United Nations:

Every second; 167,000 plastic bags are created.

Yet,  less than 10 % of plastic is recycled.

And the plastic industry is growing:  7.1% annually

8 million tons of plastic ends up in the oceans each year.

We must find beauty in what we have already have.  

Melt Down-2019  is the tool as we search for answers.  

Just as the fabric of our culture is shriveling

Our plastic film crinkles from the heat.  

For a moment it is fluid,

Hardening into an abstraction of the future.

Our goal is to change the system.   

We must find a direction that is in harmony with nature

and sensitive to the human form

We all need to search for answers and share our thoughts.

Before Trashion Fashion 2020.

9. Transparency: Here Are My Taxes designed by Catherine Rush

Modeled by Monique Holt

Catherine’s objective for this design was three-fold: First, to create an eveningwear look; Second, to only use things that could not be recycled; And third, to buy nothing to complete the outfit. The end product is this dress created from the waste produced by her recent home re-siding project. The bodice is made of scraps from a high-tech house-wrap, which is normally used to provide extra protection against the wet before you nail in the siding. The skirt is created using the backing from the 4” wide tape that secures the house-wrap to the house. The tape is hand-sewn and covered in shredded personal papers, such as old tax returns. She added some chocolate wrappers and chip bags to give it a festive look. Her model is actor, director and playwright, Monique Holt who recently moved from New York City to Seattle.

10. Aluminations

designed by Cherry Bibler, Wanda Hecht, and Linda Lancaster

modeled by Sonja Younger

Three sisters created an Aluminations sensation with this futuristic version of the roaring twenties.  The cape is fashioned from scrap metalized plumbing insulation, decorated with aluminum pop tabs, and illuminated with repurposed lights.  The 20’s style dress is made of thousands of pop tabs carefully crafted to create maximum beauty and movement.  Listen for the jingle!!

11.Broken Pieces

designed by Olivia Vessenes (STUDENT)

modeled by Nobelle Wilkinson Bennett

Broken Pieces

Hello. My name is Olivia Vessenes and I am a type A, highly sensitive, introverted, Gryffindor who likes playing piano.

See, now we’re not

strangers. Let me tell you

something else about me

I’m not crazy.

Despite all evidence

to the contrary, despite

being composed of broken

pieces,

despite the fact that

my own brain

tried to kill me,

I am perfectly sane. Let me tell you why.

—

There is a Japanese art called kintsugi in which the artist fits together broken pottery with gold

The philosophy that goes with it is instrumental in my life

Not to repair the brokenness

Celebrate it

And build something new

This is what I have been doing for the past four months

building a new life

and gluing it together with Dialectical

Behavioral Therapy

DBT is in all the pages of this dress, worksheets and handouts strait from

A Thira Health book

Glued together with the life I shed to get here

—

DBT tells us that in order to get out of hell you have to climb through misery. And you have to keep climbing, day by day. The great thing about misery is that it’s not constant. I get hours and sometimes days of freedom, of life where I don’t worry about wanting to be here. And then it hits again

I never once forget

That misery isn’t constant

But

Somehow in

The moment it doesn’t change anything

And yet here I am. Still breathing and walking and talking.

And yet.

So today I remind myself that this isn’t magic.

It’s a blessing to have found the strength to continue,

And for that, I am eternally grateful.

And I am also grateful to have the opportunity to share with you all the beauty that can be made of even the most broken pieces.

Thank you.

---

Thank you to our 2019 Sponsors!

IslandWood

Bainbridge Disposal

Patti Shannon & Diane Sugden
of Windermere Real Estate

Heyday Farm

Green Mountain Technologies

Kitsap Bank

Wicklund Dental

A Kitchen That Works

Sheldon Orthodontics

—————–

AmosSoma Skin Care

Eleven Winery

F.R.O.G. Soap

Grounds for Change

Alchemy Goods

The Traveler

—————–

The Art Project (TAP)

Sotheby’s Realty

SHiFT

Bainbridge Public Library