"Best Trash Fashion Show ever. This year's fashions raised the bar," according to attending trash fashion afficionados and Robin Worley, aka Rayona Visqueen. Rayona said, "Designers put all their creativity into 1 or 2 pieces this year and it really showed in the craftsmanship and style." Designer Paisley Gray said the show was, "one of the best experiences of my life!"
Seattle Fashion Show
Friday, April 17th, 2009
300 people thronged the New York Fashion Academy on Ballard Ave. Window gawkers were greeted by the "Ice Queen of Tollefson Plaza" in her 9-foot wide, palatial dress.
Bellingham Fashion Show
Saturday, April 11th, 2009
The work of 9 designers wowed the raucous crowd at the Wild Buffalo. After the show, models mingled with the guests and danced late into the night, thanks to Lucky Brown.
What is a Haute Trash Fashion Show?
The Haute Trash Fashion show, brainchild of a group of progressive fashion designers, brings their 25-years experience to the 8th Annual Recycled Art and Fashion Show. The group’s designs have been seen at the Seattle Art Museum, Burning Man, county fairs, and dozens of other community festivals throughout the Western U.S. Designs and accessories are made from a wide variety of unconventional materials that include but are FAR from limited to:
• construction fencing
• food and packaging
• inner tubes
• chain mail made from soda pop tops
• plastic bags ~ woven, crocheted, pleated, sewn...
• container lids of all shapes and sizes
• and a wide array of scrounged, scavenged,
.....scraped, and salvaged materials
Local fashion designers featured their work at this year’s show, sourced from a dumpster near you. These artists delight in breaking out of the box of conventional fashion modeling. Hilarious descriptions accompanied each design, highlighting the bizarre and fascinating materials and ideas behind each design.
Robin Worley, aka Rayona Visqueen, is an original member of Haute Trash and coordinator for the Seattle and Bellingham shows since 2005.
"We create fashion out of trash in order to entertain, educate and empower others to rethink, reuse and recycle. Our show seeks to break down the boundaries of stereotypical beauty and fashion by celebrating bodies of all sizes, shapes and ages through humor and satire. We might change the way you see the world. "
Since 2002, the Haute Trash troupe has put on over 100 shows throughout the Western United States, remapping the boundaries of trash, reuse, beauty, form and function.
If you don't believe that a dress can be made from candy wrappers or a suit can be made from six-pack rings, view photo galleries from the 2008 Seattle show, courtesy of the Seattle Photography Group and Doug Bulger Photography.
Visit the Haute Trash website
Learn more about our 8th Annual Recycled Art and Fashion Show held in Spring, 2009 that included:
- 4 galleries in 3 cities
- 2 trash fashion shows
- Recycled art workshops in Bellingham and La Conner
- "Urban Alchemy" litter clean-up and temporary art installation in Bellingham
Learn from this link how to make your own yarn from plastic bags. Then weave, knit, or crochet your way into your own trash fashions!
