“What do you get when a small group of visionary educators, artists, creators and environmentalists with a passion for the planet – and future generations – join forces with a mission to reimagine waste by creating couture with a conscience? You get Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show: a dazzling event where landfill-bound debris is transformed into jaw-dropping garments and designs. You get an event where creativity becomes a catalyst for change.” Read the complete in-depth article by Lynette Confer at Bend Lifestyle Magazine here!
GARDEN PARTY Designer: DeeDee Johnson Model: Robin Copper Engle Photo: Kimberly Teichrow
Once again, we pulled off this multifaceted, highly engaging, sustainably minded, community connecting event! The 13th Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show was enriched this year by more interactive sustainable thinking – art, activities, free design workshops, and a developed reusables system. These, in combination with the mesmerizing trash fashion show, raised the community impact of this even. Thank you sponsors, thank you Bend!We simply couldn’t have done it without you!
CREATURE OF FASHION – ReStore Business ChallengeDesigners: Lisa Mcluskie, DeeDee Johnson, Restore Employees Brian & KeeganModel: Lisa McluskiePhotographer:Joe Kline
Your support for creativity, the magical transformation of innovative materials, passion for our planet, and uplifting more than 700 people to find unique ways to think about waste, made the 2025 Rubbish Renewed the best fundraising and eco-elevating event in Bend!
Your supporthelped bring student designers from 17 Central Oregon schools 3rd grade to college and adult designers new to fashion and those who have been with us since the beginning. Your supportof diversity is what makes the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show matchless, engaging, and meaningful! And with your support we raised nearly $20,000 for REALMS Schools continuing the vision to foster scholarship, strengthen community, and inspire stewardship through active learning.
We feel so proud of the space and event we collectively created to celebrate and promote sustainability through the magic of trash fashion. It was a beautiful evening filled with hope, love, and community. Together we proved again, that Rubbish Renewed is not just a fashion show and not just a fundraiser, but a creative celebration of re-imagining waste, rethinking our relationship with trash, and inspiring people to live lighter on the planet. It is a testament to the power of people with aligned belief in a mission bigger than ourselves!
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!
All of my professional career I commuted to work by bicycle. I still ride my 1986 Rock Hopper, a stout, pre-suspension mountain bike that I even rode, years ago, from Seattle to Bolivia. I must have more than 50,000 miles on it. It needs a 4th paint job. Bike commuting and biking in general are acts of inspiring community for a sustainable earth, the tag line for Rubbish Renewed.
This year, at the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show on May 10th, we are raffling 2 bikes donated by Bendr Cyclery!With only 160 maximum tickets being sold for each bike, you have great odds to win! One is an Aveton Level 1 e-bike valued at $1200. The other is a Fuji Adventure Mt Bike valued at $530. You can link to buy tickets now and don’t have to be present to win!
ALTHOUGH YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE THERE TO WIN, IT’S A LOT MORE FUN TO COME TO THE SHOW!
Rubbish Renewed Returning Features:
Electrifying trash fashion runway show with intermission (different garments each half)
Live auction of a select group of garments
Eco-marketplace of locally made, creative products
Interactive sustainable booths
Competitive Business Challenge
Local food and Drink
Food carts – The Bob, Bigfoot BBQ, The Pizza Cart
Slow Ride Mobile Bar – with beverages from: Willamette Valley Vineyards, Boneyard Beer, Avid Cider, Crater Lake Spirits, and Humm Kombucha
VIP Experience (special ticket)
New This Year:
Sustainable Art Display
Bike Raffle – 2 bikes being raffled. Tickets are $25 and only 160 tickets will be sold for each bike!
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
Just 2 weeks until the submission deadline at midnight on Friday, April 4th. 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 10th
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.
Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show 