Trashion Replaces Fashion on the Catwalk

Although Santa Cruz’s first “Trashion” show was Saturday, the day after April Fool’s Day, this gala in which all the clothes were fashioned from garbage was no joke.

From the response of the packed house and the students who walked the catwalk in garbage, “Trashion” has hit Santa Cruz—and it doesn’t look like it will be going out of style any time soon.

Ironed plastic bags, bottle caps, fishing wire, tarps and old electronics were some of the materials that local middle and high school students used to piece together their entries in Santa Cruz’s first ever Trash-N-Fashion Show.

The event, hosted by the Environmental Cleanup Coalition (ECC)—a nonprofit organization dedicated to cleaning up the mass of plastic and trash building up in the ocean’s gyres—attracted about 200 tightly packed Santa Cruzans to the empty retail space on Portola Road donated by the Walt Eller Family.

After a screening of Annie Leonard’s The Story of Stuff and a short presentation about the state of the oceans by Rich Sundance Owen, founder of the ECC, things got good and zany.

The Trash-N-Fashion Show contest rules require that the contestants make their outfits from 100 percent “waste,” with the exception of thread, glue and other such fasteners. In other words: No part of the outfit can be bought.

Each of the 19 young contestants who walked down the catwalk displayed an ingenious work of wearable art, some even with accessories to match. Who knew that clothing scavenged from trash in local landfills, school yards and our beaches could look so stylish? Judging from the shrieks of pleasure, mad clapping and impressed gasps from the audience, nobody did.

Each audience member got to cast one vote for a favorite outfit. The first-place winners of the spring Trash-N-Fashion Show were Cibel Quinteros and Shea McElroy of Santa Cruz High. Their piece, “Mademoiselle Goes Green,” was an “edgy yet feminine bridal gown,” featured a fitted bodice studded with bottle caps and soda can tabs, and a flowing white skirt made from ironed plastic bags and wax paper.

“I loved the whole experience of making it,” says McElroy. “I was impressed by how difficult it was to find the trash, because we couldn’t buy anything. We knew it was everywhere, but it was hard to find.”

Second place went to designers Nina Lutz and Paige Davis, also of Santa Cruz High. Their “Flight School Wedding,” modeled by Fiona Murphy, was a gown made from recycled school work, with a long bouncy skirt made out of hundreds of paper airplanes.

Third place went to Elizzabeth Hughes-Brown, with her “Minijupe,” a short and sassy dress and purse made from plastic bags and Starburst wrappers.

Owen, who donned a full suit of armor (shin guards and all) made from recycled sushi trays, was pleased with the turnout and plans another Trash-N-Fashion Show in the fall at a bigger venue. Owen is serious about bringing awareness to the communities about the state of the oceans, and the Trash-N-Fashion show definitely brings all this trash to light.

“I was on a boat that went from Brazil to Cape Town,” he said during his presentation. “We took water samples every 60 miles for 3,200 miles. There was plastic in every sample.”

Working as a scuba instructor in Maui, Rich first came into contact with the mass of debris in the ocean’s gyres—naturally occurring spirals in ocean currents, of which there are four—in 2005-06 while he was traveling in Thailand and Bali, and founded the Environmental Cleanup Coalition and Gyre Cleanup Project in Santa Cruz and Maui in 2008.

“He made this his passion,” says Watsonville teacher, Sarah Baumgart, who helped dream up and organize the Trash-N-Fashion show, along with Fawn Lisa and Jaylyn Brendlen of Santa Cruz’s eco-friendly Doja Clothing.

“When you cry, it’s salt water; when you sweat, it’s salt water,” says Owen. “Your blood has almost the same salt content as the oceans. We are salt water beings. Ocean care is the highest form of self care.”

Owen is among the scientists and activists who believe cleaning up our oceans is possible, and he supports a gyre cleanup contest. Jim Murosako of the Abundant Seas Foundation has already started designing a Pelagic Pod, aka “the pod,” that could capture floating plastic as well as chemical contaminants that can’t be netted.

At Saturday’s event, silent auction donations to benefit the ECC were made by a few artists, including Ralph Sanders, and several local businesses, including Greenspace, Trader Joe’s and New Leaf.