The Brass Paperclip Project

Trash Talk :: How I Became Obsessed With Trash

The first time I laid eyes on Robin Worley, she had blue hair and was dressed head to toe in trash.  Had I seen her walking down the street, I would have thought she had lost a few marbles.  The fact that she was the emcee for a trash fashion show I was watching made her incredibly clever and chic.  They say you only have one chance...seven seconds...to make a first impression.   Robin made the most of her seven seconds.

As she slowly and deliberately walked the catwalk in a striking blue ballgown hand crafted from a popped air mattress, I could tell she would be an influencer to many people in the audience that night.  Some people just have a presence, and Robin is one of those people.  She commands attention with very little effort. (The fact that she was decked out in rubbish didn't hurt either.)

Her gown was decorated with colorful bits of plastic that had all washed up on Kamilo Beach on the Big Island of Hawaii. Designed to highlight the growing problem of plastics pollution in our oceans, the dress was a fun, but graphic illustration of a huge, unfun problem. 

That's Kamilo Beach in the photo below.  That trash is a foot deep and in some places, may be up to 10 feet high.  Not the image that usually comes to mind when you think of Hawaiian beaches, is it?  

Clean-up efforts are ongoing, but with an endless supply of marine debris, the trash keeps piling up.  The BBC has given Kamilo Beach the unfortunate distinction of being "The Dirtiest Beach in the World."  Watch to video below to see why...

Sadly, Kamilo Beach isn't the only beach like this.  There are thousands.

Robin calmly continued her talk about the North Pacific Gyre and  The Great Pacific Garbage Patch...a swirling vortex of trash (twice the size of Texas!) floating in the world's largest sea...that had likely been the source of the plastic bits adorning her gown.

After seeing Robin in her dress and hearing her speak about the problem, I wanted to learn more.  I wanted to do more.  I had been influenced.  And that is exactly what trash fashion and trash art are all about.  Teaching people to see garbage in a new way.  Learning while having fun.  Empowering people to change the way they view the world and take action to make it better.

Robin has been involved with trash fashion for over 20 years, working closely ith communities to educate audiences about the waste we all create.   As a founding member of the non-profit group Haute Trash, she takes her talents up and down the west coast producing fashion shows, teaching design classes and advocating for change.  At it's core, Haute Trash is dedicated to breaking down the boudaries of conventional beauty and fashion through humor and satire. 

After watching the fashion show that night, I knew without a doubt that I wanted to be a part of the fun.  My entire career has revolved around fashion...previously as a visual merchandiser...more recently as a designer...but always without a real sense of purpose.  This felt like something more.  Something I could sink my heart and soul into.  And thanks to Robin, I did.

 A few months ago I shared some of my inspiration and a behind the scenes look at the 2011 ReStore Trash Fashion show that I participated in this past April.  I am happy to tell you that I am now officially obsessed with trash and have already started to work on a collection of new trash fashion designs to be revealed in Seattle in June 2012.  I'll be sharing my design process and more details about the event as things move along, so be sure to follow me on Facebook or Twitter to watch the projects unfold.   And of course, if you subscribe to my blog or follow it on BlogLovin, you will get the full inside scoop on the event and the inspiration behind my work.   XOXO, Cindi

Mail Order Bride: 2011 Seattle ReStore Trash Fashion Show

For those of you who are just joining the conversation, this is Part 2 of my story about a bubble wrap wedding dress that I designed for the Seattle ReStore's 10th Annual Trash Fashion Show.  Why did I do this? 

The story actually begins last year when my friend Tina Witherspoon, of glam.spoon fame, invited me to join her for the Seattle ReStore's 9th Annual Trash Fashion Show.  Tina is an accomplished designer and always has her finger on the pulse of fashion in Seattle.  (If you're not already following her blog, you should be!) I knew whatever this event turned out to be, it would be fun to go with Tina.  Long story short, I had so much fun at the event that I left wanting very badly to be a part of the next year's event.  Surely, I could make a dress out of trash...no sewing, just tape and staples right?  How hard could it be? 

Fast forward to February 2011.  The tweet went out that the ReStore was accepting submissions for this year's show.  I immediately set to work on concepting a design.  (If you missed it, Mail Order Bride: Inspiration covers the design inspiration piece of this story and the creation process was documented via my Facebook page.  Feel free to check those out for the back story and "before" photos.)

Although I had been hording coffee bags for a year, in anticipation of this event, I went with bubble wrap instead because I just had so dang much of it.  The long pieces I had would be perfect for a train or veil...the possibilities for draping were great and I knew I could get serious volume with little effort.  The bodice was trickier, but luckily, I have a dress form and figured out how to use it to make a pattern.  In all, I was able to pull the dress together in about two weeks.  Not as easy as I had thought it would be, but not so hard that I didn't enjoy the challenge.

Once I had submitted my design photos, I had to wait to find out if my dress would be chosen for the show.  I'm not a terribly patient person, so the waiting was especially hard for me.  When the e-mail finally came telling me that my dress had been accepted, I was excited and terrified...because now I had to actually get up and model this thing!  In front of people! 

The day of the show, we all arrived at the NY Fashion Academy in Ballard for rehearsal, hair and makeup. My good friend Andrea came with me for moral support and to help tape me into my dress. She also turned out to be very good at procuring extra glasses of vino for yours truly.  (Nerves, people!) There I am, below, at the rehearsal with only half my dress on.  Ooh la la!

Finally, the gods and goddesses of natural beauty arrived from my all-time favorite spa, Habitude, to help us make the most of our natural good looks.  (wink. wink.)  This guy did my hair...

And this gal did my makeup.  She informed me when I sat down in her chair that she had seen me earlier and really wanted to do my makeup.  She had a vintage vision, so I told her to run with it.

Meanwhile, the crowds were arriving downstairs...if I wasn't already married to this guy, he certainly would have caught my eye sitting there in the front row.  ;)

And then there was this little cutie who snuck up to the dressing room to wish me luck...if she wasn't already mine, I would have definitely scooped her up along with that good-lookin'  bald guy in the white shirt.  ;)

Ok people, showtime and the big reveal...

I think I got the most comments about my "sequin" collar and my junk mail bouquet.  The collar was made from packing peanuts which I squished flat, cut into circles and then sewed by hand to a fused bubble wrap base.  Squishing the peanuts was my daughter's idea, so I must give credit to her for that fabulous flash of inspiration.

The flowers were made from blue security envelope liners...I'll do a separate post about those for anyone who wants to know how I made them.  I tossed them all into the crowd at the end of the show...still hoping no one got poked in the eye!

Overall, the experience was AMAZING.  I can't wait to do it again next year.  All of the people I met were incredibly warm and friendly.  Experience levels ranged from first-timers, like myself, to seasoned trash fashionista pros.  The designs were incredible and I loved that the designers were regular people who came together from every field imaginable... finance to restaurants to medicine to architecture...to make art from trash.  The creativity was astounding and learning how each piece was made was fascinating.

Words can't really do them justice, so here are some of my favorite pieces from the show...

So a big huge THANK YOU to Tina Witherspoon, for introducing me to trash fashion and another one to my dear friend Andrea Craven for holding my hand, taping me in to my dress and helping me calm nerves.  

I'd also like to acknowledge three incredible photographers who were on hand to capture the entire event and without whom, this blog post would not be nearly as visually stimulating.  ;)

Penn Miniken is a local Seattle photographer-blogger who shot the pre-show and the catwalk.  You can see his full coverage of the event at Face52.org.  My hubby liked the photo Penn took of our daughter so much that he bought me a print for Mother's Day...turned out gorgeous!  Thanks, Penn!

 

Seattle photographer Michael Cline also captured the runway magic.  You can see more of his event photos on Flickr....  Michael managed to take more than a few pictures of me that I like enough to share on the internet...a rare feat indeed!... so thank you for those!

 

Fellow east-coast native, photographer John Cornicello, set-up a mobile studio to formally document each design.  You can see more of his stunning photos on his website, photos.Cornicello.com and on Facebook.  Thanks for the shot of Andrea and I together...that was super sweet of you to do!

 

This story will continue for a few more posts so that I can talk about Robin Worley, Haute Trash Diva extraordinaire and the Haute Trash organization that produced this fashion show with the ReStore.  I'll also be sharing some tips for turning your trash into gorgeous, functional DIY projects that you can make at home. 

Mail Order Bride: Inspiration

It's been a busy several months since my last post, so I have a lot of catching up to do here.  Life has been chock full of good stuff, leaving me with lots of fun things to share...including some big changes for this blog.  But before I get into that, let's chat about bubble wrap, shall we?

The pop-ularity of bubble wrap is undeniable. Every year, the Sealed Air Corporation makes enough bubble wrap to stretch from the earth to the moon and back.  That’s more than 472,000 miles of plastic…enough to wrap around the earth 18 times.  Does that blow your mind?

{Source}

Now consider this... The Plastic Loose Fill Council states that 45 million pounds of loose fill (aka: packing peanuts) are produced each year.  They are also proud to tell you that a whopping 30% of that is reused…leaving a mere 31.5 million pounds to be sent to landfills each year.

{Source}

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you may recall that earlier this year, I designed a wedding dress for the Seattle ReStore Trash Fashion Show.  The dress was made entirely of post-consumer packaging waste...bubble wrap, packing peanuts, tyvek mailers, etc.  The intent of my design was to playfully highlight the problem of excessive packaging and plastic pollution and to encourage people to buy local whenever possible.  And, of course, I had to tie it back to weddings somehow!

{Source}

I started my design process by looking for inspiration online.  The images in this post are some of my favorites.  Keeping in mind that I have never designed a dress, let alone one made from trash, I knew I wanted to keep my design relatively simple, but still wanted it to have a certain wow factor.

{Source}

And then there were the shoes...I had to have great trash shoes, so I did some sole searching for those too...sorry, couldn't resist!

{Source}

Accessories were also on my design radar...a headpiece, bracelet and trashy bridal bouquet became fun additions that added to the overall look and feel of my dress design.

{Source}

If you are curious about how my bubble wrap wedding gown turned out or how the fashion show went, I hope you'll check back for part 2 of this post.  Also to come...some great big changes for this blog.  Follow along on BlogLovin' or subscribe to have fresh posts beamed directly to your inbox so you don't miss a thing! 

Lead Photo: Designer Michael Michalsky designed this amazing collection of haute couture gowns for DHL.  To see the rest of the collection click here.