Showcased for Action: 2025 Business Challenge Garment Gallery Posted

Posted on November 19, 2025 by Rubbish Renewed

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 Garment Gallery for captivating photos of each garment, their description, story and businesses’ sustainable practices.

Rubbish Renewed 2025 had a diverse team of photographers. Thank you to Kimberly Teichrow Photography, Joe Kline Photography, Stark Photography, Melissa Barnes Dholakia, and Greg Maffei for the incredible images you’ll find in our galleries.

Check out the 2025 Business Challenge Garment Gallery and look for more posts coming soon!

Hidden Creatives: 2025 Adult Show Gallery Posted!

Posted on November 4, 2025 by Rubbish Renewed

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 Campbell Model: Rona Campbell; “A PROPER BAG LADY” Designer: Lloyd McMullen Model: Mikayla Gil; “POOL PARTY” Designer/Model: Qristy Kurtz; “BEN’S BACKPACK 2.0” Designer: Meg Knight Model: Ben Knight; “GARDEN PARTY” Designer: DeeDee Johnson Model: Robin Cooper Engle; “INTRAVENOUS SEAMSTRESS” Designer/Model: Katie Valentine

Check out the 2025 Adult Garment Gallery and look for more posts coming soon!

Students Inspired! 2025 Show Gallery Posted

Posted on October 21, 2025 by Rubbish Renewed

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 the 2025 Student Garment Gallery and see what students inspired create.

Check out the 2025 Student Garment Gallery and look for more galleries and blog posts coming soon!

Bend Lifestyle Magazine Celebrates Rubbish Renewed!

Posted on August 29, 2025 by Rubbish Renewed

“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

Sneak Peak: 2025 Show Photos!

Posted on June 29, 2025 by Rubbish Renewed

PHOTOS BY: Kimberly Teichrow Photography (more photos for purchase ), Joe Kline (more photos for purchase ), Stark Photography (more photos for purchase), Melissa Barnes Dholakia, and Greg Maffei

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.

Kimberly Teichrow Photography

Joe Kline Photography

Stark Photography

Melissa Barnes Dholakia

Greg Maffei

Thank you Bend & Sponsors!

Posted on June 18, 2025 by Rubbish Renewed

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 Challenge **Designers:** *Lisa Mcluskie, DeeDee Johnson, Restore Employees Brian & Keegan* **Model:** *Lisa Mcluskie* **Photographer:** *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 support helped bring student designers from 17 Central Oregon schools 3^rd grade to college and adult designers new to fashion and those who have been with us since the beginning. Your support of 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!

With Gratitude, The Rubbish Renewed Team

And the 2025 Business Challenge Winner is…

Posted on May 13, 2025 by Rubbish Renewed

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!

Business Challenge Sneak Peak – Who will get your Vote?

Posted on May 9, 2025 by Rubbish Renewed

For our 13th year and our 12th Business Challenge we have 7 sustainably-minded, local businesses competing for the 2025 Rubbish Renewed’s Coveted 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 Juries Out

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Rubbish Renewed

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

What Will You Create? Garment Submission Deadline April 4th!

Posted on March 22, 2025 by Rubbish Renewed

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!