Free RR Design Workshop collaboration with DIYcave!

How can I create something from nothing?

What is the value of trash beyond the landfill?

What is its story?

Sign up for one of the first ever Rubbish Renewed free organized community design workshops! Rubbish Renewed is partnering with DIYcave to inspire and support new and burgeoning trash fashion designers of all ages. We created two 2-hour workshops to help jump start your vision with an additional 1-hour free studio time gift card from DIYcave.

Space is limited to 12 participants for each workshop. We will have several dedicated designers, material manipulators, and technical teachers to meet you where you are in the process. Come with garment ideas, material samples, and an open mind! Sign-up for one by clicking the linked dates below.

Rubbish Renewed Design Workshop 1: Friday, February 21st 4-6pm

Rubbish Renewed Design Workshop 2: Friday, March 7th 4-6pm

We can’t wait to see what you create!

Rubbish Renewed 2025 – Date announced!

Mark your calendars for the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show May 10th, 2025

Bend’s coolest event celebrating sustainability, trash fashion, and local arts

Create and submit a garment

Support Local Schools

Rooted in a love of fashion, an appreciation of art and a passion for the planet, the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show fuses environmental responsibility, funky fashion and community.

Started in 2010 as a rogue fundraiser by a couple of teachers, it has turned into a Bend staple, a fashion-centered, sustainably run event that everyone in the community can enjoy.

The preparation and event encourage people to look at how much waste their lifestyles produce and inspires them to change habits that decrease their impact on the planet through small doable actions.

The Pavilion prepared for the start of the 2024 Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show

Get Inspired: 2024 Student Garment Gallery Posted

My compost bin is full of fall leaves, political postcards riddle the recycling, and in my studio I’m wallowing in waste ready to get inspired for the coming trash fashion season! It’s time to spread sustainable creativity by posting the Student Rubbish Renewed Garment Gallery from the 2024 Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show.

Rubbish Renewed 2024 had a diverse team of photographers. Thanks again to Kimberly Teichrow Photography, Joe Kline Photography, and Melissa Barnes Dholakia for the incredible images you’ll find in our galleries.

Check out the 2024 Student Garment Gallery and look for more galleries and blog coming soon!

Rubbish Renewed-Trash Fashion video by Milan Anderson for The Obsidian

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

First Glimpse – Show Fashion Photos!

Designers from 2nd grade to their 90’s created the unique trash fashion pieces that came to life on this year’s Rubbish Renewed runway. Materials from old single socks, farm refuse, net veggie bags, to an old garden hose were masterfully manipulate into sustainable style. Here is the first glimpse of a few fashion photos illuminating the brilliance of our trash fashion designer community!

Thanks to a skilled team of photographers, Kimberly Teichrow, Joe Kline, and Melissa Barnes Dholakia, we have a diverse set of images to tell the 2024 Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show story. More posts with photos to come soon including full galleries. Keep checking!

Photos by Kimberly Teichrow Photography

Check out Kimberly Teichrow’s full gallery of Rubbish Renewed portraits for purchase at Kimberly Teichrow’s 2024 Rubbish Renewed Proofs

Photos by Joe Kline Photography

Check out Joe Kline’s atmospheric images in his gallery of Rubbish Renewed photos for purchase at Joe Kline Rubbish Renewed Gallery 2024

Photos by Melissa Barnes Dholakia

And the 2024 Business Challenge Winner is…

It was a tight vote this year for the Business Challenge winner with 8 creative garments presented by 8 unique businesses (Restore, Gear Fix, Lonza, Humm, Brave, Jackson’s Corner, OAS, and Bend Anesthesiology Group) who take their sustainability seriously.

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.

CAMP-TORIAN Designers: Nico Brilmyer, Kasey Boyd, Ethan Engemann Model: Avalon Disko Photo by: Melissa Barnes-Dholakia

More photos to come soon!

1 Day Away! Business Challenge Preview

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!

The Sustainable Fashion Legacy of Harriet Langmas

Rubbish Renewed is one lucky event to have a rich array of participants. Harriet Langmas, now in her 90’s, has been a staple at the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show. Always hosting a marketplace booth of her repurposed, discarded scraps that she knits & crochets into hats, scarves, vests, sweaters, and rugs; sews into stuffed chickens, gift bags, and pillows… and often creates garments for the runway. This year is no exception.

Locals donate their cast-off materials to the Presbyterian quilters and the quilters pass their scraps onto Harriet! Materials that others believe are too small to reuse become embellishments in Harriet’s pieces. We were lucky to visit her long time Bend home to see her current creations and listen to her stories.

Harriet’s Sustainable Fashion Legacy goes way back in Bend. It was the 1960’s when Harriett taught at COCC and started the “Displaced Homemakers,” the predecessor to today’s Clothing Connections (a joint venture between COCC and OSU, a free donated clothing service for students). Harriet created a seminar to prepare students for job interviews and a closet in the gym, to provide professional clothes to wear.

In 1972 Harriet appeared on the popular show “What’s My Line” showcasing her patchwork fashion. She once dressed 1st Lady Betty Ford in a patchwork skirt to watch the 4th of July fireworks, and had 3 phone numbers for Katharine Hepburn who she met when filming ”Rooster Cogburn” in Bend with John Wayne. Ms. Hepburn wanted to buy Harriet’s skirts on a whim to give as gifts.

Photo: Kimberly Teichrow Photography

Before leaving Harriet’s she shared her rule of 3, rule of 4, and rule of accessories: Rule of 3 – don’t take any clothes on a trip that doesn’t do at least 3 things. Rule of 4 – it is the 4th thing you put on that makes the pow! Rule of accessories – rhythm, cluster, pow!

Thanks Harriet for helping make the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show an incredible Bend Event!

Read this 2006 article in the Bend Bulletin to dig into Harriet’s fascinating legacy:

9-Days Away! Celebrate an Array of Trash Textures

Here is a sneak peak of the array of trash textures creating this year’s fashion on the runway in just 9 days! Designers re-envision refuse and sew, drape, fuse, weave, braid…to create the electrifying pieces for the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show making their statement for the environment. Get your tickets today!

Garment Submission Deadline April 5th – 1 week away!

Just 1 week until the submission deadline at midnight on Friday, April 5th. 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 11th

  1. Complete the Submission Form linked from the Runway Submission Page
  2. Pay Submission Fee
  3. Send 3 photos of your design

Complete the submission process by the deadline of midnight << Friday, April 5th >>

We can’t wait to see what you create!