By Majella Shields
Staff Writer
Welcome to this week’s Fashion Focus. On campus we are doing our best to recycle and help with Recyclemania. The “Trashion” show is an event to encourage students to use their creativity as well as the recyclable contents of their trash cans to create an outfit.
These materials include products made from paper, plastics, rubber or are recycled from discarded household, commercial, or industrial packages or products. The outfit that walks the runway must be fully recyclable to enter the show. Any student interested can contact Rebecca Wager at rwager@sbu.edu for further details.
There are many different approaches when designing an outfit from waste. Think how pretty a “leather-look” black shirt made from a trash can bag would be tucked into a skirt made from pleated newspaper, topped off with a necklace made from beer bottle caps. Another idea would be to make a structured skirt from pizza boxes. Or you can stitch together your Walmart bags to make a dress and accessorize with a belt and an arm cuff made from soda tin cans.
Separate from the show’s guidelines, if you want to make your Trashion Fashion more wearable, however, recycling your old clothes to make them look new is another excellent way to reduce waste. An example would be taking a denim shirt that you love but has been worn too many times and a pair of shorts that have a lovely pattern that doesn’t fit right. Simply cut patches from the fabric and sew them onto the ripped or worn parts of the shirt. I also like to customize my shoes using studs. This is easy to do and the studs can be bought from haberdasheries cheaply. When my shoes get worn at the heels or the leather gets scuffed I will cover the worn areas with brightly colored fabric so it looks like an entirely new pair of shoes. Perhaps you have some broken necklaces that you love but don’t wear. By using a glue gun and some ribbon, those can easily be converted into a belt.
I understand it can be hard to think of wearing trash, so I came up with an inspiration board to help enthuse your creativity and animation. I took these ideas from Pinterest. Number one is similar to what I previously mentioned – a dress made from pleated newspapers. The top is paper mache, and the skirt is easily created. Simply fold newspaper into pleats. To keep the pleats in place, use fixing glue spray or place a heavy weight on top of the pleated paper and leave overnight. Quickly glancing at number two, my first impression is the detail and how pretty it is, and when I look closely I see beer bottle lids and soda can rings. This is simple. Place the objects onto a recycled material, layer each piece and keep in place using a glue gun. Number three is another recycled masterpiece you have to look closely at to realize it is made from safety pins. This is easily made by linking stacks of safety pins together using a larger safety pin, and you can make almost any shape or structure you want.
The fashion show is approaching, so get your glue guns and beer lids ready and get trashy.
shieldm13@bonaventure.edu
