When members of the Guardian see palettes of untouched newspapers discarded behind the Dumpsters at the Student Center, we die a little inside. When Revelle College sophomore Samantha Sanchez comes across these unread mounds, she sees endless fashion potential.
On April 24 at the Loft, closing out UCSD’s traditional Earth Week lineup, Project Trashion will merge trash with fashion, giving students a creative outlet to show their love for Mother Earth. The eco-friendly fashion show will bring local merchants and student designers together to send their green garments and accessories down the runway. The Trashion show will be preceded by VidFest ‘mdash; a student short film contest with an emphasis on spreading awareness of environmental issues ‘mdash; and wrap up with a DJ dance party at the Loft.
‘At UCSD, a lot of the efforts for sustainability are more at the operations level ‘mdash; the building level, with our solar panels and other energy efficient technology. There’s a creative aspect to sustainability that’s not as evident,’ Earl Warren college senior and Project Trashion coordinator Ashley Ferrer said. ‘We wanted to reach out to students who are creative, and we wanted to put on something that was a bit more social and creative at the same time.’
The show will open with designs from Joy Fabiano, Simply Defined, O’Neill, Billabong, Maitri, Niksters Bikinis, Sela Wear, The Verde Bag and Flashback Recycled Fashions.
Simply Defined, founded earlier this year by professional designer Angela Du ‘mdash; who herself will don an outfit made of aluminum cans ‘mdash; will be debuting a line of green dresses fashioned out of everything from brown paper bags to plastic water bottles and newspapers.
‘I hope that people see that recycling and being all about the green can be sexy,’ Du said. ‘I feel like there’s a certain stereotype on people who are eco-friendly, and I don’t think they have to be people who are activists. It can be anybody ‘hellip; e
very little bit helps.’
Seventeen student designers have expressed interest in entering the show. With the addition of professional designers, the runway will feature about 30 sustainable outfits and accessories.
Ferrer said the student entries do not have to be as polished as those of the professional designers, and that judging will not be based on complexity or intricacy of design. Garments and accessories will be judged by Sustainability Coordinator Maggie Souder, Sustainability Analyst at the Sustainability Solutions Institute Kristin Blackler and one other judge, who is yet to be determined.
Those who rock the categories of best use of recyclable materials, best use of sustainable materials and best use of household materials will take home complementary passes to the San Diego Natural History Museum.
‘We’re not rewarding a first place or second place and we’re not here to say who can come up with the best design,’ Ferrer said. ‘Some people are professionals and that’s great. I’m completely challenged and wouldn’t be able to hem a hole in my clothes, but I can probably throw something together ‘hellip; If someone wants to make a bottle-cap necklace, that’s awesome, trendy, and reasonable.’
Although she has undertaken a few design projects before, Sixth College junior Jacqueline Tran admits that the thought of sewing plastic grocery bags together made her reluctant to enter the show. The top of her dress will be made of scrunched plastic grocery bags to create ruching, and the bottom will be made of tulle from an old Halloween costume and crushed soda cans cinched together with string and ribbon instead of thread.
‘I liked the whole ‘taking things out of the recycling bin’ as opposed to using hemp [to make the garment] because I’m not very good at just sewing ‘mdash; I would rather just put something together,’ Tran said. ‘[Project Trashion] kind of reminded me of ‘Derelicte’ from Zoolander so I took inspiration from that.’
Sanchez, who sews as a hobby and has her own crafting blog, feels more comfortable with her newspaper dress design than Tran and even plans to incorporate plastic grocery bags. She has also been experimenting with grocery bags and heat, ironing sheets of plastic together to create thicker material. Sanchez hopes the show will alert guests to the ways they can conserve.
‘There will be a lot of cool stuff there to look at, but realistically, you can’t wear a newspaper dress every day. But you can go to thrift stores and learn how to sew and be creative,’ Sanchez said. ‘If not, I hope that people know that the companies that they do shop at are starting to have sustainable options and they can shift their buying practices to that.’
Project Trashion will showcase its philanthropic side through a silent auction to raise money for Sacred Heart Secondary School in Uganda through the organization Schools for Schools, a subset of Invisible Children, which has a chapter at UCSD. The event is free to attend, but students can purchase raffle tickets for a chance to win sustainable products donated by the show’s professional designers. This swag includes a gift card to Flashbacks Recycled Fashions; a Verde Bag starter kit (one shopping bag, one medium produce bag, one small gift wrapping cloth); a gift bag of sustainable products from the UCSD Bookstore; T-shirts and bags from Nikster Bikinis and body products from L’Occitane and the Body Shop.
All proceeds will help renovate Sacred Heart’s facilities; buy textbooks, art and sports materials; promote clean water and sanitation and purchase classroom technology.
‘ ‘We wanted to put something on that could accomplish the two goals of environmentalism and social justice,’ Ferrer said. ‘It’s really an engaging and interactive conclusion to Earth Week.’
Readers can contact Joanna Cardenas at [email protected].