What an amazing night at the Pavilion on Saturday May 20th where the Bend community raised the roof for the revival of the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show! Thunderstorms and downpours created a dramatic backdrop to this festive fashion-forward event. One fan raved, “The Met Gala has nothing on Rubbish Renewed!” The evening raised more than $20,000 for Realms Schools to continue the vision to foster scholarship, strengthen community, and inspire stewardship through active learning.
Thank you Bend for embracing the mission of the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show, “transforming trash, inspiring community for a sustainable earth,” and making our community such a great place to live!
Designer/Model: Holland Rustand Photo: Paula Bullwinkel
Excitement is building for the The Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show Business Challenge competition just 1 day away! 8 businesses dedicated to sustainable practices, are coming together to celebrate sustainability, support Realms education, and compete for the Coveted Trash Trophy!
Years of passing on the Coveted Trash Trophy, like the Stanley Cup, is over. New this year is the laminate version, ready for the winning Business to keep!
Back for the competition areReStore, who have competed in every Business Challenge! Lonza, for their 3rd Business Challenge, and Gear Fix, coming back for a 3rd after a many year pause!
It takes a village to create an event like the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show, and we have the best village! An important part of this community is the:
RRSCC – Rubbish Renewed Student Creative Council
This amazing group of middle and high school students have pitched to businesses to acquire sponsors; presented to a variety of schools to encourage designs for the show; interviewed past Rubbish Renewed organizer/designers for blog posts; given interviews on the radio; created social media posts; investigated the venue to make important logistic decisions; worked the 1st Friday preview event at Outside In on May 5th; and now are in the midst of the last week’s preparations: sign making, completing the community garment, scheduling volunteer times. . . There’s a lot to do in the next 6 days, but we can’t wait!
Devon Lizza discovered the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show through her mom’s friend’s daughter, when she was a high school student at Bend High, and never looked back! Now, a second-year student in the architecture program at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Devon has designed another spectacular piece transforming trash into an eye dazzling color experience!
What inspires your creations?
2019 Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion ShowMaterials: K-cups, plastic Bags, old bike tire
2018 Gum Wrappers
I have to say color. I think that color is just an inspiration in itself as it’s the one true way to bring life to something. When I start looking at garbage it’s always the color I am drawn to first followed by how to alter it into something unrecognizable. This sorta flows into the process for me as I want the end look to be nothing like what it’s made out of. I’ve designed with gum wrappers, chocolate wrappers, and kediri cups in the past and I always know I’ve done it right when people continually ask me “what on earth is this made of”.
How do you connect to the Rubbish Renewed mission – transforming trash and inspiring community for a sustainable earth?
Being a lifelong Oregonian and a student at UO with a sustainably focused architecture program, it goes to show I love this event for more than just the sheer ingenuity it spurs but also the mission and message behind it. I believe in sustainability being the future of the world’s success and that people can contribute to this themselves. I myself am a vegetarian and an avid thrifter, one because I love the things and secondly after I found out that those two things are single handedly the most environmentally positive impactful an individual person can do.
What is one thing you want to share with aspiring trash fashion designers?
Materials for this years creation!
My advice to aspiring designers is to just keep things interesting and design trashion garments with things you would least expect. Sometimes I have a little game in my head walking around that I challenge myself to imagine what type of clothes can be made from whatever odd trinkets and garbage I see. Keep people guessing what things are made of and ALWAYS keep a lookout for some color.
Come see Devon’s newest creation along with 45 other incredible garments created by student and adult community designers at the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show, on May 20th at the Pavilion!
Your garment doesn’t have to be complete to submit, but the further along you are, the easier it is for the jury to recognize your vision in your photos and artist renderings.
The Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show garment submission deadline is one month away! Designers, now is the time to start fabricating that unique creation you’ve been pondering. You may be still collecting trash, but get started!
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3 EASY STEPS to be considered for the 11th Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show on Saturday, May 20th…
Complete the submission process by the deadline << April 20th >>
Mission – Is your garment furthering the Rubbish Renewed Mission? Does the description of your garment and piece communicate: Transforming trash, inspiring community for a sustainable earth
Materials – Does your garment fit the trash fashionand/or re-fashion definitions? Does your garment transform trash into fashion? Priority given to garments that truly keep items out of the landfill.
Design – Does your garment communicate a coherence in design, an innovative technique, unique aesthetics, and creative expression?
Construction – Do you demonstrate quality in construction? Does your construction quality inspire long-term use?
Your garment doesn’t have to be complete to submit, but the further along you are, the easier it is for the jury to recognize your vision in your photos and artist renderings.
It’s that time of year in the Rubbish Renewed calendar to get inspired to design and construct! Rubbish Renewed is calling all creatives to find the inherent beauty in the trash around you. Delve into its unique characteristics: Is it stiff? Does it flow? Does it create volume on its own? How can it be attached? Discover the essence of the material and see the form emerge.
Things that are stiff and can create and maintain shape:
Things that are soft and can be sewn or woven:
Things that are small and can be cut up and tied, tacked, or glued:
Things that are small that can be rolled into beads or used whole and tied together:
The cats out of the bag – Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show will transform the Bend Pavilion! A new chapter. A new wave.
Rubbish Renewed has made the rounds of event venues in Bend. Our first 3 years, starting in 2010, we celebrated at the Century Center. They provided the perfect venue – huge open space, an energizing vibe, and few rules. That was old Bend. In 2013, the Century Center indoor venue was divided and repurposed into small businesses. The huge space gone, Rubbish Renewed set out to find another home.
Bend is lacking in large, indoor, open event venues. After countless failures we finally procured the Armory Gym down near the Old Mill. The location was ideal, close for walking, and dedicated parking. The Gym atmosphere, however, was hard to transform, and the military systems challenging to negotiate.
In 2015 we moved again and made our home for 5 years by converting the Midtown Ballroom into a mesmerizing setting. Look forward to a post highlighting the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show, years 6-10.
After 2 years of pandemic closures, it’s time for a Rubbish Renewed Revival! A huge, diverse space, open to the environment, brings opportunities . . . the Pavilion!
THE REINCARNATION OF EARLY 20TH CENTURY WOOL COATS
My great uncle made braided rugs during the Great Depression and World War 2. Living in Roundup Montana, the winters were long and cold. He gathered worn out woolen coats and scraps from family and neighbors, and spent hours deconstructing garments, stripping fabric, and manipulating the newly formed strips into braids. This rubbish renewed process was normal during those lean times, making use of material that was finished from its original purpose, into something new and enduring. I grew up with Uncle Albert’s brightly colored, patterned rugs. One he made in later years still covers the floor of my childhood home, strong and seemingly unworn.
The rug that was in my aunt’s basement apartment, for as long as I remember, was an early version. When Betty passed, we discarded and distributed dozens of items. A few we kept. The rug, riddled with holes, was something to save for a later date. That time has arrived.
I transported the giant rug, weighing somewhere around 70lbs, back to Bend. Dragging it into my living room, like a body bag (luckily my partner was out of town), it was too big to unfold in my tiny Old Bend home. I left it in quarters and unlaced the braids, years of embedded debris falling free into the air and carpet (I donned a mask). Then the real work began.
I think unbraiding takes as long as braiding. The strands tangle and it’s necessary to cut out overly worn parts before separating the kinky quadra-folded strands into colors. The fabric unfolds in the process of washing each color group on the hand wash cycle in my front loader.
Now a ball of snarled fabric I untangle again, iron the lengths, and hang them to dry. The outside of the fabric is exceedingly worn even in areas without holes every inch. For now, I’ve rolled them up into spools by color and weight.
My next process is to cut the strands apart at the seams and remove those areas too perforated with holes. I’ll resew the bias cuts together with the insides now the face. My goal is to create a new coat, some parts re-braided and others sewn. I’ll keep you posted as my process continues on the reincarnation of an early 20th century wool coat.
Get inspired by the waste around you, and send us your material manipulation inspiration! What will you create for the May 20th, 2023 Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show!
Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show 