……Wait for it…… 8 Businesses competed in Saturday night’s Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show Business Challenge, all creating masterpieces from their Business’ trash to showcase their sustainable practices and vie for the Coveted Trash Trophy! Aloha Blinds & Designs, Gear Fix, Ida’s Cupcakes, ReStore, Tiina and Zoey Designs, Lonza, Humm Kombucha, and Eastlake Framing all hit the runway for some friendly competition.
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 are ReStore, 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!
Other returning businesses are Humm Kombucha and Ida’s Cupcakes, both for their 2nd year. And Organic Transfusion, the Tiina and Zoey team, who have graced the runway many times!
And joining this seasoned crew of Business Challenge participants for their first time are Aloha Blinds & Designs, and Eastlake Framing!
Click here to access the 2020 Business Challenge Runway Gallery
As individual community members we have a responsibility to think about our choices and take actions to minimize our impact on the earth, but it is exponentially important for businesses to do the same. Poor waste management contributes to climate change, air pollution, and directly affects ecosystems and species. Reducing the carbon footprint of their products, creating initiatives to help employees reduce their impact, producing a climate conscious workplace, are all ways that businesses can step up their sustainability.
That’s why we love the Rubbish Renewed Business Challenge! We get to highlight the sustainable work of local businesses who take their impact seriously.
Celebrate the 2020 Business Challenge Runway participants through the captivating photos of Jazmine Turner Photography’s Mindy J. Turner and SHE Photography’s Suzette Hibble!
Designer Panambi Elliott does it again with her signature style, meticulously manipulating business waste, and brought to life on the runway by Leah Nagel.
This gallery contains 3 photos.
For our 10th year and our 9th Business Challenge we have 8 local businesses competing for the 2020 Rubbish Renewed’s Coveted Trash Trophy! Each year a group of businesses come together to celebrate sustainability, support REALMS education, and have some … Continue reading
Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show is just 4 days away, and for the 1st time it’s a Saturday night! One of the most engaging events in town, this fundraiser features two eclectic, wearable art (trash fashion) runway shows (one that features local students), our Business Challenge (competing for the Coveted Trash Trophy), a live auction of a select group of runway garments, a silent auction comprised of local sustainable donations, a pop up “marketplace”, featuring sustainable, creative products from local artists, local food and drink.
The animated atmosphere, features environmental responsibility, funky fashion and celebrates the best of our Bend community. Buy your tickets today!
In 2013, the Century Center broke up the space we had been using, and Rubbish Renewed set out to find another home. Bend is lacking in large open event venues, and after countless failures, finally we 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. We moved the venue and rescheduled the event to January 2014.
Year 4: Of 46 Central Oregon designers submitting garments, 23 of them were students from 9 local schools (3 elementary, 3 middle, and 3 high schools). Rubbish Renewed had taken its spot as a place where young, inspired designers had a chance to try their hand at a public runway event! Not only had Rubbish Renewed become an outlet for students around the district, locals were taking ownership of the event too! Beyond designers we had 21 sponsors, 9 Business Challenge participants, 11 local vendors, 60+ volunteers!
Year 5: The 5th annual Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion show was the best ever! More fun, more energy and more style. With professional sponsors like Sonic Solution generating our runway and lights, Flip Flop Sounds creating the shows background buzz, with the nimble hands of the stylists from Bishops Barbershop and Velvet finessing our bar, our humble beginnings had blossomed into a full blown anticipated event. We saw just under 1000 people in our 2 shows (students, adults & business) and they rose to the challenge, keeping a passion for the planet front and center! Our trash for the night is highlighted in the photo below! (Everything else was reused, recycled, or composted).
Once Rubbish Renewed sneaked onto the Bend scene in 2010, our first 3 years premiered at the Century Center. They provided the perfect venue – huge open space, a modular stage and few rules. We had our own bar provided by Plum & Boneyard, a cozy marketplace as you walked in, and moody lighting.
Year 1: there was 1 runway show with a total of 23 garments (compared to 57 split into 2 shows for 2020), and one designer made 5 of them! Diverse materials, from the launch of fused plastic as fashion, to beanie babies turned into a faux fur coat, graced the runway.
Year 2: our first Business Challenge garments battled it out on the runway from ReStore, Wabi Sabi, Cuppa Yo, The Horned Hand, Utilitu Sew and the Environmental Center. Cuppa Yo won the 1st coveted trash trophy designed by, now 4 time winning designer, Panambi Elliott! Skillfully manipulated materials from bicycle tubes and slides, to a kiddy pool and Capri Sun containers raised the runway bar. And we added a 2nd show!
Year 3: On the runway were 19 student designers up from 9 the year before! 2 of the Business Challenge entries were made by 2 of our talented students. And bags dominated the material cache: plastic and canvas grocery bags, dog food, ramen, paella, and coffee bags.
Check out last year’s posts on the Birth of Rubbish Renewed: Part 1 & Part 2, to get the background on our start.
It’s hard to believe that Rubbish Renewed is celebrating 10 years. Enjoy the video that highlights 6+ garments from each year. It’s amazing to see the evolution, the different venues, and where we have evolved to today.
Rubbish Renewed plans to celebrate this milestone with some unique retrospective fun planned for the evening. Look for upcoming info on our after party. If you are 21 and over, and were at either show, we have the Midtown until midnight!
We have just 3 spots left for our 2020 Business Challenge. The designers working with these businesses produce some of the most innovative and well-crafted Fashion of the show. Check out the 2019 Business Challenge Gallery to get inspired for our Saturday, January 25th, 10th annual Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show!
Each year up to 10 businesses, dedicated to sustainable practices, come together to celebrate sustainability, support REALMS education, and compete for the Coveted Trash Trophy.
At our 2019 show, Barrio won the Coveted Trash Trophy with Salva al Toro (Save the Bull). Designer Paris Draheim was in our first ever Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show as a high school student (check out her piece), and has designed for Barrio in the Business Challenge multiple times. Check out Barrio’s piece along with the other competitors in the 2019 Business Challenge Gallery.
The Business Challenge submission closes when the competition is full. Get your application in today!
Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show 
