The 2026 Business Challenge showcased 9 incredible pieces created by talented trash fashion designers and material manipulators all dedicated to sustainable practices. BBT Architects – Sherry Jako;Fashion Workshop– Qristy Kurtz;Gear Fix – Nico Brilmyer, Kate Weatherholtz;Lonza – Thyia Scott, Nahi Ortiz, Alden Dupras and Kari D’Angona;Mountain Burger– Kelly Powell;QuiltSmart– Mattie Rhoades;ReGroup Thrift/ReCoHere – Tanner Stonerock;Restore – DeeDee Johnson; and Subaru of Bend – Brenda Jackson, gave it their all and showed us how thinking outside of the box with materials can uplift sustainability through creativity and fun. It was the closest audience vote ever!
And the winner is…. ReStore, with Circuit Couture, taking home the 2026 Rubbish Renewed Coveted Trash Trophy! Congratulations ReStore!
ReStore – Circuit Couture – Auction Item! Designer:DeeDee JohnsonModel:Lynoa Blakely. This vest-skirt ensemble is made from discarded computer motherboards, broken keyboards, tattered banners, flags, t-shirt rags, and salvaged strapping, textured with wire, beads, buttons and broken chandelier parts.
In just 4 days, come celebrate with the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show transforming trash, inspiring community for a sustainable earth. It’s more than a trash fashion show it’s an experience, a mindset, a community transformation. Buy your tickets today and come to the event on Saturday, May 9th and experience:
An Electrifying Trash Fashion Show featuring designers from 14 different Central Oregon Schools, a diverse group of adult artists and aspiring trash fashionistas, a live auction of a select group of garments, and 9 local businesses celebrating their sustainable practices and competing for the Coveted Trash Trophy, all amplified by Flip Flop Productions professional stage, lighting, and sound!
A Local Maker’s Market & Interactive Booths – featuring 13 local makers and organizations selling their creative wares and creating interactive experiences.
An interactive walk through art exhibit by Bend’s ReCoHere Cooperative, showcasing the challenge of textile waste and solutions each of us can achieve.
A trash creation station for kids and adults to make hats, toys, accessories… facilitated by the Open Arts Center.
SATURDAYMAY 9th – THE RUBBISH RENEWED ECO FASHION SHOW!!!! Whether you come for the innovative runway trash fashion, the live auction, the eco marketplace, interactive art installation, the bites & sips, or just to witness the sheer creativity of Central Oregon students and artists turning garbage into garments — this night always delivers. Link for Tickets Here!
I’m so proud to live in a town where many local businesses put our environment in the forefront of their work. Not only considering waste, but also community, social, and global actions. Looking back on last year’s Business Challenge Gallery post inspired me to renew the message:
“In Bend, we have the power to create a holistic sustainable community. More than just action around waste, it’s about access to affordable housing, supporting local farms and food production, prioritizing employee well-being, creating green-spaces and access for recreating and habitat in these, shifting status quo policies surrounding waste and distribute items for reuse, establishing safe routes for biking and walking… the Business Challenge participants are making a difference through local, community focused practices, that empower people, and ultimately contribute to a better world. It’s more important than ever to step up and get involved.”
Celebrate the creativity and beauty showcased for action in the 2025 Business Challenge Garment Gallery and get inspired by the emerging work happening in our community!
6 of the 7 Business Challenge Garments at the 2025 Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show. From left to right: Lonza, DIYcave, ReStore, ReCoHere, Bend Anesthesiology Group, and Gear Fix (missing Humm Kombucha). Visit the 2025 Business Challenge GarmentGalleryfor captivating photos of each garment, their description, story and businesses’ sustainable practices.
“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 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!
In Bend, we have the power to create a holistic sustainable community. More than just action around waste, it’s about access to affordable housing, supporting local farms and food production, prioritizing employee well-being, creating green-spaces and access for recreating and habitat in these, shifting status quo policies surrounding waste and distribute items for reuse, establishing safe routes for biking and walking… The 2024 Rubbish Renewed Business Challenge participants are making a difference through local, community focused practices, that empower people, and ultimately contribute to a better world. It’s more important than ever to step up and get involved.
That’s why we love the Rubbish Renewed Business Challenge! We get to highlight the sustainable work of local businesses who take community action. Link to 2024 Business Challenge Garment Gallery.
Pictured: Bend Anesthesiology Group “AETERNUM”, ReStore “AMPED-UP EVERYDAY HERO”, Lonza “SCIENCE WEATHERS THE STORM”, Humm “TIDE TOGETHER“
Celebrate environmentally conscious businesses by experiencing the 2024 Business Challenge Garment Gallerythrough the diverse photos from Joe Kline, Kimberly Teichrow Photography, and Melissa Dholakia.
This year we were lucky to have a young journalist, Milan Anderson, create a video piece on the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show for the Obsidian (the inaugural youth publication from the Future Journalists of America program). Milan, two-time winner of Bend Film’s Future Filmmaker Award and a 2024 Realms graduate off to film school, created this 7+ minute piece. Check it out, and see some trash fashion in motion, hear about our humble beginnings, and celebrate Bend’s talented youth.
Rubbish Renewed-Trash Fashion by Milan Anderson for The Obsidian
And the winner is Gear Fix taking home the 2024 Rubbish Renewed Coveted Trash Trophy for their 1st time in 4 competition. Congratulations Gear Fix! We hope you display this trophy prominently.
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!
Rob, of Trailers4Two, has created another beautiful, discarded-scrap-laminate Trash Trophy. One of the following Business Challenge participants will take the Coveted Trash Trophy home!
ReStore is competing in its 11th Business Challenge! That is every year (we didn’t have it year 1). At ReStore they must drink a lot of Yerba Mate, and with designer DeeDee Johnson’s incredible material manipulation it will be one unique piece. Gear Fix, back for their 4th Business Challenge, has a growing team of designers led by Nico Brilmyer and with that, a growing garment. This looks ready for the Met Gala!
Lonza, also back for their 4th Business Challenge. has repurposed their previous Business Challenge garments each year. This is its 4th reincarnation led by designer Kari D’Angona. Another returning businesses for their 3rd competition is Humm Kombucha who was back last year. Mother daughter team, Michelle Mitchell and Mae Plantenberg, create a patterned piece of plastic pallet wrap encased in outdated labels.
Brave Boutique, back in the Business Challenge with another Jen Ryker, bigger than life piece. As a boutique, packaging is the largest waste to deal with. Jen pulled out her power tools to create this armor. Although Jackson’s Corner has been involved in the past with Rubbish Renewed, this is their 1st Business Challenge! But designer Allison Murphy has had multiple designs in the Business Challenge over the years. Allison, one of the founders of Rubbish Renewed, is an outstanding designer and maker. We will all be blown away.
And joining this seasoned crew of Business Challenge participants for their first time are Oregon Adaptive Sports and Bend Anesthesiology Group! One of the few waste items OAS produces are single leftover gloves/mittens when one is lost, and popped bike tubes. Designer Martha Campbell meticulously quilted these gloves together to create this versatile jacket. Bend Anesthesiology Group is inspired to make an impact on hospital waste produced in the OR. They are currently exploring repurposing and recycling the large amount of blue polypropylene wrap going to the landfill. Their Business Challenge gown designed and created by a team of Anesthesiologists, RN’s and Radiology Techs, makes an impact on the environment and on the runway!
Bring your friends and your voting block to support your pick for the Coveted Trash Trophy!
Saturday May 11th at the Pavilion doors at 5:30pm! Get your tickets today!
Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show 