One man’s trash is another man‘s treasure
More than 30 designers showcased the unique and the innovative at this past Friday’s Trashion Show
Mahi
mahi
Trashion Show
Lobdell Dining Room
Hosted by UA Sustainability
Dec. 1, 2017
Friday marked the sixth annual Trashion Show, a fashion show put on by UA Sustainability. The Trashion Show is UA Sustainability’s call-to-arms for all waste-conscious people everywhere. Designers gather either individually or in groups and use viable could-have-been-trash (and, in some cases, actually-were-trash) materials to create beautiful clothing.
One of the many goals of the Trashion Show was to bring about more awareness of climate change. Everybody leaves a carbon footprint on the earth, and Trashion hoped to make attendees more aware of the other ways they can dispose of their waste or even repurpose it.
Generally, the final products were hit-or-miss. The majority of the designs were dresses and they either made the audience ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ or furrow their brows in worry at the structural integrity of the piece. Some of my personal favorites include “Unbound” (by Lisbeth Acevedo; design featuring a skirt and bodice made of unbounded pages of old textbooks), “Leather and Lace” (by Coral Bays-Muchmore; design featuring a top and matching hand purse made of an old leather backpack and a skirt made of wasted copy paper and wedding doilies), “Vagabond Chic” (by Samantha Russman; a black dress made of old cloth with explosions of color down the center, reminiscent of a doll from days past), and “More With Paper” (by Xin Wen and Zhuoya Yin; a design featuring tissue paper to make flowering adornments).
Even then, there were many more designs that stood out to both the audience and judges. “Duo et Machina” (by Khanh Nguyen and Ryan Gulland) featured clothing made out of actual sheet metal which was impressive enough to win Most Unexpected materials and second place overall, but also struck a small twinge of fear in me when they got a bit too close to other people. “Fish Out of Water” (by Helen Abadiotakis) was a more humorous display of a mostly naked man in ocean-esque drapery. The model strutted down the runway with a bubble gun to make the experience much more unique. Another standout was “Kinetic Peacock” (by Farita Tasnim), the third place overall winner. The gold-laced peacock feathers and well-crafted bodices were a crowd-favorite, especially considering a mechanism on the right leg caused the peacock feathers to light up. Finally, “Woven” (by June Kim), the first place overall winner, struck many as an ode to the gothic Victorian age. The simple black and white designs wove together to remind attendees of the intricate rope work typically done by sailors and fisherman, but still worked together well to make a comprehensive, lace dress.
UA Sustainability even went above and beyond and invited a guest judge from the Philippines to weigh in on the results. Francis Sollano started out as a trashion designer in his home country. He wanted to spread awareness of the direness of global warming, which more directly impacted his island-cluster country. Nowadays, he is working on trying to influence legislation towards easing the burden of climate change. On the MIT Trashion Show, he said, “I think it’s a good start for something that is beyond the school… [and] how this [will] translate when the designers go out of school… and how they can help with climate change [legislation].”
Overall, UA Sustainability did a great job with this year’s Trashion Show. The setup in Lobdell really gave a true sense that we were attending a high-end fashion show. Models strutted down the runway with sass and confidence. Designers did a wonderful job of showing off their creative talent by mere use of paper, plastics, and metals.