The RE Store, a non-profit center that collects and re-disburses used building materials in Seattle and Bellingham, Washington, hosted its 9th annual Trash Fashion show last weekend in Seattle.
Pre-show Coordinator Robin Worley of Haute Trash addressed the sold out floor at the New York Fashion Academy in Seattle with an educational and inspirational speech about the huge floating island of plastic in the Atlantic ocean (elsewhere described as "plastic soup" and a "trash vortex"). For Worley, fashion provides the way to teach about environmental responsibility. Inspired by the ethic that fashion made from trash can "entertain, educate, and empower," 20 West Coast designers displayed their creations at the show.
((Photographs by Michael Cline. Click on the photos for a link to all of Michael Cline's photos from the show on Flickr))
Highlights included "Albertsons," by Bo Young Choi, a 1930s-inspired plastic grocery bag costume, complete with hat (pictured above), "Move, Shift"(also pictured above), a cocktail dress made of fruitcake, shortbread, and tea tins, designed by Jane Grafton of Tinker's Damn, and Nicola Griffon's (of Alotta Rubbish) "Gone with the Wind and Rain," a Victorian mourning costume put together with fabric and metal fixings from broken black umbrellas.
Stay tuned for news on Portland's own Junk to Funk trashion organization.
