School’s out for winter break. Weather’s starting to feel wintery, and the community is bustling. This is a great time to do last minute holiday shopping in town. In Bend, we have a bounty of local, sustainable, diverse gift gathering spaces. Check out three great community focused businesses (and Rubbish Renewed supporters) to spend your dollars locally and make sustainable purchasing choices that are lighter on the planet!
For the handy person in your life the ReStore has a wide variety of home improvement materials, tools and furnishings almost exclusively donated by our generous community. Shopping at ReStore helps support the construction of Habitat homes that are built for energy efficiency. These affordable homes ensure families have every opportunity to thrive and grow.
For your outdoor enthusiast needs check out The Gear Fix! They consign high quality outdoor gear and repair your damaged favorites. Gear Fix cultivates a sense of community both inside and outside of the shop helping make our area inclusive for all that choose to venture outdoors.
COSA CURA: 2735 NW Crossing Dr. #101 & 19570 Amber Meadow Dr, #170
For your stylish fashion and home decor needs Cosa Cura is the place! The store currently represents 80+ Independent Artists & Designers and carries fashion from 8000+ local consignors. Cosa Cura creates an atmosphere of sustainable style, creativity, local support and community service. “Killer style and saving the planet one fabulous outfit at a time.”
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.
Bend is a haven for environmentally conscious creatives. You can find local artists openly producing significant sustainable pieces, but many innovators are hidden in the cracks. People known in our community as teachers, medical care providers, outdoor professionals… are quietly creating powerful pieces that reflect their commitment to sustainability, education, and artistry. Luckily, some materialize for meaningful opportunities like the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show! Among these incredible hidden designers are: Martha, once a Realms student, is now the Community Engagement Coordinator at the High Desert Museum; Katie, a first time Rubbish Renewed Designer, is an inpatient hospital pharmacist; DeeDee is the VP of Homeowner Services for Bend-Redmond Habitat for Humanity and has produced pieces for RR every year; and the list goes on. Take a look at the 2025 Adult Garment Gallery and enjoy the stories and designs created by a vibrant community of eco-conscious designers!
“RUBBISH ROMANTICISM” Designer: Martha CampbellModel: Rona Campbell; “A PROPER BAG LADY”Designer: Lloyd McMullenModel: Mikayla Gil; “POOL PARTY”Designer/Model: Qristy Kurtz; “BEN’S BACKPACK 2.0”Designer: Meg KnightModel: Ben Knight; “GARDEN PARTY”Designer: DeeDee JohnsonModel: Robin Cooper Engle; “INTRAVENOUS SEAMSTRESS”Designer/Model: Katie Valentine
When people ask me what my favorite thing is about being the producer of the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show, it always comes down to the students. They inspire me to step up my game as a global citizen, a community member, an artist, a designer, a teacher, and an environmental steward. I’m blown away every year by their creativity, their garment stories, and the craftsmanship, even by the youngest designers. This year the 2025 Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show showcased student designers from 17 Central Oregon schools – from 3rd grade to college! Check out the2025 Student Garment Galleryand see what students inspired create.
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.
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!
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
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!
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 Eco Fashion Show 