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.
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
I recently arrived back in Bend after several months of traveling abroad, hiking, visiting family, and teaching. Spending time in other countries stimulates my sustainability intelligence.
We walked 100+ miles in northern England of the Coast-to-Coast trail and observed the lack of trash along the way. In the UK “The Right to Roam” is embedded in the culture, and these pathways, even more broadly accessible in Scotland, have been used for centuries. There is a code of conduct to preserve these public accesses environmentally and culturally. And people follow it.
In Brussels, we spent Sunday, September 22nd, World Car Free Day, cycling miles throughout the car-free boulevards from Watermael-Boitsfort to the Grand Place and beyond. A city of millions freeing all streets of cars for 1 day a year!
And in Reykjavik, Iceland all people and businesses are obligated to sort their refuse into 5 categories: food waste; paper; plastic; cans/bottles; and trash. In fact, it won’t be picked up if you haven’t complied. What they do with it after that I’ll save for another conversation.
These experiences inspire me to think in new ways about what we can do here at home, in our Central Oregon communities. It’s time to take action.
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 2024 Rubbish Renewed 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.
That’s why we love the Rubbish Renewed Business Challenge! We get to highlight the sustainable work of local businesses who take community action. Link to 2024 Business Challenge Garment Gallery.
Pictured: Bend Anesthesiology Group “AETERNUM”, ReStore “AMPED-UP EVERYDAY HERO”, Lonza “SCIENCE WEATHERS THE STORM”, Humm “TIDE TOGETHER“
Celebrate environmentally conscious businesses by experiencing the 2024 Business Challenge Garment Gallerythrough the diverse photos from Joe Kline, Kimberly Teichrow Photography, and Melissa Dholakia.
A friend reminded me today, after taking a minute (or a month) to breathe, we need to get back to work. Each of us can make a difference by focusing action at the community level, on local legislation, and talking to people meeting them where they are.
Today I begin by highlighting the incredible trash fashion crafted by local Central Oregon adults. Creating trash fashion to showcase at the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show each year is a commitment to educate, inspire, and bring to the forefront the impact individuals can make to help the environment.
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.
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.
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
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!
The Pavilion indoor/outdoor environment was the perfect setting for the 12th Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show! The weather was flawless, the crowd energized, the vibe celebratory, and the runway stunning! Bendites perused the sustainable marketplace, local beverages and food, and most prominently interacted with re-envisioning rubbish both on and off the runway.
Together we celebrated the creativity of students from 14 local schools (our greatest participation ever), Central Oregon adults, and businesses on the runway. Together we created the best fundraising and eco-elevating event in Bend!We couldn’t have done it without our sponsors!
If you’ve been to the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show, you know it takes a village to produce. So many parts come together to create this spectacular, sustainably-minded event. Cash sponsors support infrastructure (like venue rental) and in-kind sponsors bring items (like beverages) and skills (like hair styling) that we couldn’t create on our own.
THANK YOU to each of our sponsors for supporting the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show make an impact on creativity and sustainable vision in our forward-thinking community.
Aeternum Designers: Bend Anesthesiology Group Model: Holly Graham Materials: Sterile “blue” polypropylene (#5 plastic) wrap Photographer: Joe Kline
These sponsors belief in our mission helped bring Central Oregon a creative, inspiring, and sustainable fundraiser once again! Together we raised almost $20,000 for REALMS Schools continuing the vision to foster scholarship, strengthen community, and inspire stewardship through active learning.
Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show 