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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
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.
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!
This year it’s climate change that’s brought youth to the head of the table around the world. Greta Thunberg, reminds us of how generations haven’t stepped up, and that the time is now for great action! We all need to do our part individually, and also push our communities to start making change today.
The student’s garments at Rubbish Renewed are shouting the need for environmental action too. These pieces tell a variety of stories from the challenges of medical waste showcased by Soli Lachman’s Diabetic Warrior (model Abby Lachman wears the waste from her diabetes treatment), to Jessica Browning’s Snacktastic made with non-recyclable, single serving packaging. These young artists painstakingly create fashion from trash, that are at once art and a message to take action for our planet and our future.
Enjoy these young artists’ fashion from our 2019 show. Brought to you through stunning images by SHE Photography’s Suzette Hibble and Jazmine Turner Photography’s Mindy J. Turner. Click on the links for more images from the 2019 show with options to purchase from SHE Photography and Jazmine Turner Photography!
Click on the link or image to access the 2019 Student Designer Runway Gallery
Thank you student designers for your creativity, passion for fashion and our planet, and for shining in the show! You are what makes Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show unique, entertaining, and meaningful.
Aja Kogan, Alice McKnight, Amanda Bowers, Coral Reed, Devon Lizza, Devon Stevens, Ellie Hoiness, Gabriella Shirtcliff, Harper Rich, Holiday Barnes, Jessica Browning, Kiana Kogan, Lily McNabb, Loa Minsker, Louisa, Chloe, Lucy Lamarre, Harris, Mullins, Marley Foster-Wexler, Matea LaFrenz, Noe Anderson, Soli Lachman, Sophie Singer, Soren Chopra, Twyla Wayman, Vinna Ottaviano
Thank you adult designers for your stunning designs, refined material manipulation, imaginative style, and dedication to the Rubbish Renewed mission. The 2019 show rocked the house!
Alf Humphrey, Allison Murphy, Aspen Lowe, BBT Architects Inc, Brenda Jackson, Carla Holm, DeeDee Johnson, Denise Oldridge, Erin Donnell, Harriet Langmas, Heidi Lamb, Janet Lansburgh, Jen Riker, Karen Holm, Kari Martinez, Kat Bergman, Kristi Teasdale, Martha Campbell, Mayra Stearns, Meg Knight, Melany Fry, Michelle Handford, Paris Draheim, Patty Baragona, Rob West, Ruby Swanson, Simone Kujak, Susan Galeck, Tenley Wallace, Therese Langley, Tiina McDermott, Wendy Pierce, Zoey Lane.
Nine local businesses are putting their trash fashion creativity to the test by competing in this year’s Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show’s 8th Business Challenge. Each year a group of businesses come together to celebrate sustainability, support REALMS education, and compete for the Coveted Trash Trophy. Bring your friends and your voting block, to support your pick to win the Business Challenge!
The Bend Area Habitat for Humanities Restore – The fashion forward trash fashionistas from ReStore bring us their 8th Business Challenge. This dedicated team have competed every year, and currently hold the Coveted Trash Trophy! ReStore certainly embodies the notion of sustainability as a way of life.
Barrio
– In for their 3rd Business Challenge, Save the Bull, is a matador inspired piece made from garbage bound items from Barrio’s restaurant. Before switching t
o paper straws, the staff collected used plastic straws from empty margaritas over a few months period. Photo just in! We know designer Paris Draheim, is a master material manipulator!
BBT Architects – This group of creative folks are competing in their 3rd challenge. They bring material manipulation at its best. This photo (to the right) is a computer generated concept image of what is to come, all created out of 
post rebranding, obsolete, business cards.
Brave Collective – Jen Riker, owner of Brave Collective, was inspired when she accompanied her son on the Realms 6th grade fieldwork trip to the Portland Food Bank. In their 2nd Business Challenge they have created their piece out of plastic red mesh onion bags and labels.
Giant Loop – For their 2nd Business Challenge, the Giant Loop team created this 20’s and 60’s inspired shift dress from over 100 2-inch ykk zippers, nylike webbing, quick release cams and assorted buckles and reflective ribbon tape. This fabulous ensembles purpose is to encourage you to shift your thinking into a greener world.
Moonfire and Sun – is back for it’s 2nd Business Challenge with another Simone Kujak created piece. We’ve seen Simone transform rubbish into red carpet ready fashion from our early shows. This year, garden waste from broken pottery and burlap to rubber bands from pottery packaging will come alive on the runway.
Bend Velo – As the bike commuting and touring hub of Bend, Bend Velo not only by their very nature, screams sustainability (keeping cars off the road), they also create the classy J Livingston line of retro commuter bikes re-purposed from old mountain bike frames. Designer Karen Holm designed “Raven Warrior” from the 
biggest bike related waste . . . the inner tubes.
Bigfoot Beverages – For their first Business Challenge, seasoned designer/model, DeeDee Johnson created a piece out of beverage packaging. Big Foot has a small environmental footprint for a business its size. They converted their fleet to biodiesel fuel, use electric 
forklifts, and hybrid vehicles are available to sales personnel.
Lonza – “Rubbish Royalty” is Lonza’s first foray into Rubbish Renewed fashion. This is the most enthusiastic team, creating 3 pieces with 5 designers! The leading supplier in life science industries, and the research center of the company, we love that they are placing sustainability at the core.
Who will you cast your Business Challenge ballot for?
Designing a piece with my dad was on my bucket list. So, I came up with an idea using old canvas from a deteriorating, retired tipi to create a 19th century style chief’s coat. With the huge amount of material available in the shelter, even though riddled with holes, plenty was structural. Dad happened to have an historical piece he received from an old friend, that was the perfect model to inspire the style. From that, I created a mock up in my build-first-pattern-later technique. Dad’s part was to draw plains pictograph style horse and riders, reminiscent of dew cloth designs from the same time period, with Sharpie the preferred medium. I finished the body and delivered it to Seattle. While I waited for its return, I adorned the placket with geometric patterns typical of parfleche designs, also with sharpie, and painted the cuffs and collar in rich, royal blue.
The piece came together in time for our first marketing photo shoot at Tambi Lane Photography. My 19-year-old nephew had moved to Bend from Belgium, and I strong-armed him into modeling the piece. We selected a small group of pieces to auction and made sure to photograph them. The pictures out on social media, I peppered friends with emails, knowing that something as unique as this, with my dad as one of the artist’s, could be an auction highlight. Luckily, I knew people who would want and appreciate the piece, what I didn’t understand, was there were Bendites who would bid big too!
The runway show tops the charts for style and fun, but remember it’s a fundraiser. The pieces presented for auction are donated by the generosity of artists in order to support REALMS! Come and bid to win a one-of-a-kind, wearable and displayable art piece!
Over our 8 years, Karen Holm’s pieces have raised more than $8,000 for REALMS unique education and are in collections from British Columbia to Bend.
Just 1 week until the submission deadline on Friday, December 21st. 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 Submission Application and Guidelines. It doesn’t hurt to get your submission in early – they are starting to roll in!
It’s just 3 easy steps to submit a garment: Complete the form, use the included PayPal link to pay your submission fee, and email your photos to rubbishrenewed@gmail.com by 4pm Friday, December 21st 2018.
What are you creating?
Click on the image for the 2010 Runway Gallery
In 2010 we blindly stumbled our way into the Bend community. Administrators and colleagues warned us not to take on such a foolish project, but powered by a growth mindset, we covertly gathered together a few creative and talented friends to fill the opening voids of planning and marketing a runway show event. We believed in the mission, and surely the cause, so what was to stop us!
Lucky for us, people and businesses glommed on to the idea! The Century Center provided the perfect venue – huge open space, a modular stage and few rules. Sponsors jumped in: ReStore, the Environmental Center, Camp Nor’wester, 
and Sara Bella supported with funds; Boneyard and Plum crafted our bar; and Tambi Lane Photography took marketing portraits and offered to shoot the show. We came up with a name, and friends suggested we create an image and a tag line for people to recognize. We got some media on board with the Source, True North Parenting Magazine, and Abracadabra printed our posters. And we pulled together a unique market place of local like-minded artists to add to the evening event. Then all we had to do was produce a show . . .
As the momentum grew, so did our fear of failure. We scrambled to the last minute and opened with one runway. Link here to the 2010 Gallery showing pieces that made this first event the catalyst to what we are today. Enjoy our humble beginnings.
Here are a few images from our photo shoot at Tambi’s several weeks before the show.
Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show 
