Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show fuses environmental responsibility, funky fashion and community. Join other socially conscious individuals for an evening of sustainable fashion, showcasing styles that the future demands. We invite you to reconsider the value of trash and celebrate the creative, sustainable spirit of Bend.
Started by two educators and rooted in a love of fashion, an appreciation of art and a passion for the planet, Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show is a fundraising event for REALMS Charter School. An eclectic, wearable art runway show, a live and silent auction, and a gallery style marketplace (where contributing local artists sell and showcase their work), will showcase how we “fashion” our lives while lessoning waste.
“What do you get when a small group of visionary educators, artists, creators and environmentalists with a passion for the planet – and future generations – join forces with a mission to reimagine waste by creating couture with a conscience? You get Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show: a dazzling event where landfill-bound debris is transformed into jaw-dropping garments and designs. You get an event where creativity becomes a catalyst for change.” Read the complete in-depth article by Lynette Confer at Bend Lifestyle Magazine here!
GARDEN PARTY Designer: DeeDee Johnson Model: Robin Copper Engle Photo: Kimberly Teichrow
The Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show had an incredible photography team this year. We were lucky again to have: Kimberly Teichrow Photography taking portraits before the runway, capturing clear images of each piece and some with designers; Joe Kline’s atmospheric photos, seizing the essence of the event; and Melissa Barnes-Dholakia, with her bright photos of pieces on the runway. New with us in 2025 were 2 photographers, Daniel Stark, who captured the whole event from the marketplace to models, and Greg Maffei who shot the back of the house catching the magic behind the curtain.
Once again, we pulled off this multifaceted, highly engaging, sustainably minded, community connecting event! The 13th Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show was enriched this year by more interactive sustainable thinking – art, activities, free design workshops, and a developed reusables system. These, in combination with the mesmerizing trash fashion show, raised the community impact of this even. Thank you sponsors, thank you Bend!We simply couldn’t have done it without you!
CREATURE OF FASHION – ReStore Business ChallengeDesigners: Lisa Mcluskie, DeeDee Johnson, Restore Employees Brian & KeeganModel: Lisa McluskiePhotographer:Joe Kline
Your support for creativity, the magical transformation of innovative materials, passion for our planet, and uplifting more than 700 people to find unique ways to think about waste, made the 2025 Rubbish Renewed the best fundraising and eco-elevating event in Bend!
Your supporthelped bring student designers from 17 Central Oregon schools 3rd grade to college and adult designers new to fashion and those who have been with us since the beginning. Your supportof diversity is what makes the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show matchless, engaging, and meaningful! And with your support we raised nearly $20,000 for REALMS Schools continuing the vision to foster scholarship, strengthen community, and inspire stewardship through active learning.
We feel so proud of the space and event we collectively created to celebrate and promote sustainability through the magic of trash fashion. It was a beautiful evening filled with hope, love, and community. Together we proved again, that Rubbish Renewed is not just a fashion show and not just a fundraiser, but a creative celebration of re-imagining waste, rethinking our relationship with trash, and inspiring people to live lighter on the planet. It is a testament to the power of people with aligned belief in a mission bigger than ourselves!
The 2025 Business Challenge was the most diverse yet. Restore,Gear Fix,Lonza,Humm, Bend Anesthesiology Group, DIYcave, and ReCoHere gave it their all and showed us how thinking outside of the box with materials can uplift sustainability through creativity and fun.
And for the 2nd year in a row, the winner is…. Gear Fix, with Moth Mess Monster, taking home the 2025 Rubbish Renewed Coveted Trash Trophy to add to their winning display! Congratulations (again) Gear Fix!
For our 13th year and our 12th Business Challenge we have 7 sustainably-minded, local businesses competing for the 2025 Rubbish Renewed’sCoveted Trash Trophy! Each year a group of businesses come together to uplift our collective actions to make a better world, and have some friendly competition with the winner decided by the night’s audiences. Bring your friends and your voting block, to support your pick to win the The Rubbish Renewed Business Challenge this Saturday, May 10th!
Meet Betty. The vintage scrap laminate used to create the 2025 Coveted Trash Trophy! Thank you Rob Walker for another one-of-a-kind keepsake for our Saturday night winner!
Returning as the most consistent Business Challenge competitor and our 2025 Presenting Sponsor, ReStore is competing in its 12th Business Challenge (winner in 2018). Designers DeeDee Johnson and Lisa Mcluskie, are going big this year. This Restore creature sees everything with a different lens. Walk the floor of the store any day of the week and you too can imagine a whole new world.
Both back for their 5th Business Challenge competition Gear Fix and Lonza are stepping up! Gear Fix, the 2024 Coveted Trash Trophy winner, has designer Nico Brilmyer back leading a team of colleagues Kasey Boyd, and Kate Weatherholtz. With this dynamic design group we can expect the cosmic guardian of the wild, the Moss Mess Monster, to fight pollution to the extreme! Lonza is trying something new with material manipulation – crocheted plastic packaging, truly transforming plastic bags! We can’t wait to see what the seasoned Trash Fashion team, Nahi Ortiz, Thyia Scott, and Kari D’Angona, brings to life with this marvelous mermaid inspired piece.
Back to compete again from 2024 are Humm Kombucha and the Bend Anesthesiology Group. Humm Kombucha is in it’s 4th Business Challenge! New to Rubbish Renewed designers, Zhenya Cotita, Kevin Coneys, and Syd Becker, bring a fresh look to the Kombucha trash fashion scene with hairnets creating the softness of this Sugar Humm Fairy. For their 2nd Business Challenge, Bend Anesthesiology Group continues to change the medical waste stream. BAG is highlighting the sustainable work they do by using poly wrap destined for the landfill to create bags for new families in the Family Birthing Center. This garment, fashioned by prolific Rubbish Renewed designer Karen Holm, highlights the simple, clean, beauty our future could hold by lessening our impact on the planet.
Joining Rubbish Renewed for their first Business Challenge are DIYcave and ReCoHere.DIYcave has finally jumped into the Trash Fashion competition. Inspired by their deep appreciation for pollinators, creatives Mak Sales and Quentin Gooding, are manipulating material into something flamboyant. ReCoHere has been keeping us in the dark up until now. Their multi-layered piece will bring out masterful material manipulation while sending a message – These garments have a lot to say about consumerism, power, and how we can all do more even simply by what we choose to dress in each day.
Remember, bring your friends and your voting block, to support your pick to win the The Rubbish Renewed Business Challenge this Saturday, May 10th, at the Pavilion!
All of my professional career I commuted to work by bicycle. I still ride my 1986 Rock Hopper, a stout, pre-suspension mountain bike that I even rode, years ago, from Seattle to Bolivia. I must have more than 50,000 miles on it. It needs a 4th paint job. Bike commuting and biking in general are acts of inspiring community for a sustainable earth, the tag line for Rubbish Renewed.
This year, at the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show on May 10th, we are raffling 2 bikes donated by Bendr Cyclery!With only 160 maximum tickets being sold for each bike, you have great odds to win! One is an Aveton Level 1 e-bike valued at $1200. The other is a Fuji Adventure Mt Bike valued at $530. You can link to buy tickets now and don’t have to be present to win!
ALTHOUGH YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE THERE TO WIN, IT’S A LOT MORE FUN TO COME TO THE SHOW!
Rubbish Renewed Returning Features:
Electrifying trash fashion runway show with intermission (different garments each half)
Live auction of a select group of garments
Eco-marketplace of locally made, creative products
Interactive sustainable booths
Competitive Business Challenge
Local food and Drink
Food carts – The Bob, Bigfoot BBQ, The Pizza Cart
Slow Ride Mobile Bar – with beverages from: Willamette Valley Vineyards, Boneyard Beer, Avid Cider, Crater Lake Spirits, and Humm Kombucha
VIP Experience (special ticket)
New This Year:
Sustainable Art Display
Bike Raffle – 2 bikes being raffled. Tickets are $25 and only 160 tickets will be sold for each bike!
The Garment Submission Deadline passed last Friday, April 4th at midnight. An exciting and stressful time for designers who hope to feature their artistic expression and personal statements about Transforming Trash, Inspiring Community for a Sustainable Earth on the Rubbish Renewed Runway.
This year we have more submissions than space available, with student designers from 17 Central Oregon Schools! These designers range in age from 3rd grade to a college sophomore. We have a wide array of adult submissions from several designers new to Central Oregon, a few designers back to Rubbish Renewed after a long absence, and some of our favorite material manipulator, trash fashion designers in the area.
You’ll see some of the traditional trash manipulated year after year on the runway – plastic bags, jeans, candy wrappers, drink cans, produce mesh, mailers… Some materials that are new this year to the Rubbish Renewed runway – political signs, retired chainsaw chaps, and raft parts salvaged from the Colorado Bridge wave cleanup…
Rubbish Renewed is just 1 month away! We can’t wait to see you for our 13th event and showcase designer creations that celebrate the actions we can take to elevate the sustainability of our Central Oregon communities.
Scan QR code below for Tickets or link from the button in the sidebar
Just 2 weeks until the submission deadline at midnight on Friday, April 4th. Remember that you do not need to have your garment completed, but the further along you are, the easier it is for the jury to recognize your vision in your photos and artist renderings. Read the material guidelines carefully. Here is the link to the Runway Submission Page. It doesn’t hurt to get your submission in early.
Check out these materials from a few designs that have started to roll in!
Submit your garment design in just 3 EASY STEPS to be considered for the 12th Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show on Saturday, May 10th
Rubbish Renewed is more than a Trash Fashion Show, it’s about community connections, sustainable education, design inspiration…. Friday, February 21st was the first free Trash Fashion Design Workshop collaboration with DIYcave. Amazing to bring students and adults together from diverse corners of Central Oregon to share, collaborate, and get inspired! Thank you to our group of talented mentors from ReStore, ReCoHere, and Interconnected Diversity! These sponsors not only support the event, but they also gave their time and expertise to burgeoning designers. We can’t wait for the next workshop on March 7th!
Helping designers/models, especial the young ones, build confidence and recognize the value of their creation, while preparing the “frame” to highlight the art on the runway, are part of the magic of the green room created by the stylists who give their time.
2024 brought together 4 fabulous hair stylists from Badlands Hair Studio, Kiersten Rowles, Karl Yates, Jonae Schoen, and Lylly von Hurst. These stylists worked their magic quickly and creatively, with a focus on making each model and garment stand out. Kiersten, Karl, Jonae, and Lylly, as part of Badlands Hair Studio, are committed to the environment dedicated to fighting beauty waste and climate change.
For the first time we had a student led makeup team. Holland Rhodes, a senior at Realms High, led the team of mostly high school makeup artists. Their rapport with the young designers/models from all over Central Oregon helped create a supportive experience for all.
Thank you to the fantastic stylists who created a fun, supportive atmosphere and fashioned the fabulous “frames” essential to a professional looking show!
Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show 