Trash to Treasure

I attended Fashion Fridays at the Cardinal this past Friday and part of the lineup included recycled fashions. Dresses and skirts made out of newspapers (the old paper I wrote for in college—The Badger Herald!), magazines, grocery bags and garbage bags graced the sleek white runway.

The first black garbage-bag fashions (Made by Rosalee Eichstedt) were actually very cute—I could imagine all of them made out of fabric. The first model sported a white tank and jeans and then her hair, wrists and shoes were adorned with fluffy black flower-like puffs. The shoes were quite cute, and I’d pick up a pair!

Other models wore incarnations of garbage-bag dresses including: a poufy garbage-bag skirt paired with a sleek black patent belt and black tube top; a black (garbage bag) figure-hugging dress with a ruffly neck worn with black leggings; a halter “carwash” dress constructed of black and white garbage bags; a white tank and black leggings paired with a flower-like newspaper “skirt;” and an incredibly detailed dress made out of either paper grocery bags or brown plastic grocery bags. Seriously this stuff was genius and quite Project Runway-worthy.

Another group of designers (Jonathan, Renee and Callie; their fashions were titled "Project Runway: Witte Style") constructed elaborate designs out of magazines with a feminine twist. The first, a sheath dress made out of Vogue magazines sported a creased, fan-like top cinched with a wide waistband. Again, I could imagine the dress made out of lovely fabric—say, a heavy dupioni silk or satin. The second style was a fitted strapless dress with a poufy newspaper skirt and the third, a highly constructed dress with a sweetheart neckline and a skirt that flared out slightly at the waist like a tulip skirt.

Bravo for turning trash into couture-like treasure.

(Photos courtesy of Abby Schoofs, Avalon Sky Photography).

P.S.: Local designer Jessica Catherine's designs were also featured in the show—which I loved, too!