It takes a village to create an event like the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show, and we have the best village! An important part of this community is the:
RRSCC – Rubbish Renewed Student Creative Council
This amazing group of middle and high school students have pitched to businesses to acquire sponsors; presented to a variety of schools to encourage designs for the show; interviewed past Rubbish Renewed organizer/designers for blog posts; given interviews on the radio; created social media posts; investigated the venue to make important logistic decisions; worked the 1st Friday preview event at Outside In on May 5th; and now are in the midst of the last week’s preparations: sign making, completing the community garment, scheduling volunteer times. . . There’s a lot to do in the next 6 days, but we can’t wait!
Your garment doesn’t have to be complete to submit, but the further along you are, the easier it is for the jury to recognize your vision in your photos and artist renderings.
It’s that time of year in the Rubbish Renewed calendar to get inspired to design and construct! Rubbish Renewed is calling all creatives to find the inherent beauty in the trash around you. Delve into its unique characteristics: Is it stiff? Does it flow? Does it create volume on its own? How can it be attached? Discover the essence of the material and see the form emerge.
Things that are stiff and can create and maintain shape:
Things that are soft and can be sewn or woven:
Things that are small and can be cut up and tied, tacked, or glued:
Things that are small that can be rolled into beads or used whole and tied together:
The cats out of the bag – Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show will transform the Bend Pavilion! A new chapter. A new wave.
Rubbish Renewed has made the rounds of event venues in Bend. Our first 3 years, starting in 2010, we celebrated at the Century Center. They provided the perfect venue – huge open space, an energizing vibe, and few rules. That was old Bend. In 2013, the Century Center indoor venue was divided and repurposed into small businesses. The huge space gone, Rubbish Renewed set out to find another home.
Bend is lacking in large, indoor, open event venues. After countless failures we finally 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.
In 2015 we moved again and made our home for 5 years by converting the Midtown Ballroom into a mesmerizing setting. Look forward to a post highlighting the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show, years 6-10.
After 2 years of pandemic closures, it’s time for a Rubbish Renewed Revival! A huge, diverse space, open to the environment, brings opportunities . . . the Pavilion!
THE REINCARNATION OF EARLY 20TH CENTURY WOOL COATS
My great uncle made braided rugs during the Great Depression and World War 2. Living in Roundup Montana, the winters were long and cold. He gathered worn out woolen coats and scraps from family and neighbors, and spent hours deconstructing garments, stripping fabric, and manipulating the newly formed strips into braids. This rubbish renewed process was normal during those lean times, making use of material that was finished from its original purpose, into something new and enduring. I grew up with Uncle Albert’s brightly colored, patterned rugs. One he made in later years still covers the floor of my childhood home, strong and seemingly unworn.
The rug that was in my aunt’s basement apartment, for as long as I remember, was an early version. When Betty passed, we discarded and distributed dozens of items. A few we kept. The rug, riddled with holes, was something to save for a later date. That time has arrived.
I transported the giant rug, weighing somewhere around 70lbs, back to Bend. Dragging it into my living room, like a body bag (luckily my partner was out of town), it was too big to unfold in my tiny Old Bend home. I left it in quarters and unlaced the braids, years of embedded debris falling free into the air and carpet (I donned a mask). Then the real work began.
I think unbraiding takes as long as braiding. The strands tangle and it’s necessary to cut out overly worn parts before separating the kinky quadra-folded strands into colors. The fabric unfolds in the process of washing each color group on the hand wash cycle in my front loader.
Now a ball of snarled fabric I untangle again, iron the lengths, and hang them to dry. The outside of the fabric is exceedingly worn even in areas without holes every inch. For now, I’ve rolled them up into spools by color and weight.
My next process is to cut the strands apart at the seams and remove those areas too perforated with holes. I’ll resew the bias cuts together with the insides now the face. My goal is to create a new coat, some parts re-braided and others sewn. I’ll keep you posted as my process continues on the reincarnation of an early 20th century wool coat.
Get inspired by the waste around you, and send us your material manipulation inspiration! What will you create for the May 20th, 2023 Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show!
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.
Each year a group of businesses come together to celebrate sustainability, support Realms education, and compete for the Coveted Trash Trophy.
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!
New Season . . . Spring . . . Saturday, May 20th 2023!
The revival of Rubbish Renewed creates opportunities. One of these inspired a new season, Spring. Spring offers fresh venue ideas, novel designs, and more time for motivated student and adult designers to conceptualize and construct.
The design, creation, and application are a months-long process for designers to engage in and learn about waste, personal actions, design, creation skills, and determination, culminating in the professional feel of the show!
Just 4 months away. What will you create?
Save the Date: Saturday, May 20th 2023!Submission deadline one month before
Rubbish Renewed has developed into a showcase for talented community artists. Many designers submit year after year inspired to up their game in sustainability, material manipulation, and style each event. Pieces tell a variety of stories like the challenges of medical waste, excessive packaging from our mail order and coffee on-the-go obsessions, and how to transform discards into truly wearable art.
After the nearly 2-year plunge into the pandemic, we are finally coming up for air and reviving Rubbish Renewed!
Student designers/models – unaware of life changes ahead. Photo: Jazmine Turner Photography
The pandemic seemed to come out of nowhere. Suddenly life drastically changed. As teachers, we had to rethink, redesign, readjust, and renew our commitment to students in a completely new environment. The first balls dropped were the things not immediately in front of us. Rubbish Renewed fell into the pandemic abyss.
Now, somewhat adjusted to our new normal, it’s time to reacquaint ourselves with the Rubbish Renewed mission and inflate the balls that we dropped after the 10th annual Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show!
Scraps from old dress, upholstery project, old pillow sham, aunt’s closet . . .
During the pandemic many of us included in our lives the essence of the Rubbish Renewed tagline – transforming trash, inspiring community for a sustainable earth! Discarded scraps of fabric became one of the most common community connectors. Ordinary people created masks for family, friends and colleagues, out of those little pieces of fabric they just couldn’t throw away. My sister, a Rubbish Renewed designer from the past 2 shows, lives in Belgium. She made more than 200 masks to give to family, friends, and neighbors. And that’s a tiny amount compared to some.
Anticipate mesmerizing photos by Jazmine Turner Photography and SHE Photography from the 2020 show that share the 10th annual and look ahead to Rubbish Renewed Revival!
Designer Panambi Elliott does it again with her signature style, meticulously manipulating business waste, and brought to life on the runway by Leah Nagel.
Left Photo by: random Friend; Right Photo by: Rebecca Penny
Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show 