Reuse, recycle, rewear
The Dress and Humanity class took “reduce, reuse and recycle” to a new level in its annual Re:invent Fashion Show on Tuesday.
The winning look in the People category of the fashion show was named “Under Construction,” and for a good reason: the dress was made from neon orange plastic.
While designing and creating a dress like this may seem daunting, Kaylee Rapp, a sophomore studying dietetics, explained that creating the dress wasn’t very hard.
“It was a little harder to work with — the material — than we thought, but not too bad. It all went pretty smoothly,” Rapp said.
Rapp said the dress took about four to five hours of class time to make and was held together by clear tape and a little duct tape.
The material was manipulated into a long gown that featured a large bow on the models lower back. A headpiece made of the same neon orange material completed the high-fashion look.
The fashion show is aimed to make a difference. A video aired at the beginning of the show addressing this.
The video began with kids telling the camera crew their favorite and least favorite foods, only to be told that one in five kids go hungry. This statistic shocked the kids when the camera crew revealed that it applied to the United States.
In order to fight hunger, the show charged a can of food for admission. All the food was then donated to the Student Nutrition Access Center (SNAC), Utah State University’s food pantry.
Many students received credit for inviting friends to the event, and the TSC Ballroom was filled wall to wall.
The fashion show had judges, colorful lights, a catwalk and live music. Getting to the fashion show required creativity from the designers.
A skirt made of Big Gulp cups flounced down the catwalk. There was also a dress made entirely of neon straws and a strapless gown made with only thick, tattered rope. Even a wedding dress with a skirt layered with white, plastic spoons made its debut down the runway.
Another group expressed what it was like for them to create their “Arctic Vibes” look.
“We love snowboarding, and we love the snow and cold weather,” Madison Heinrich, a junior majoring in marketing, said, “so we went with an Arctic theme.”
While choosing the theme for their look came easy, she said they faced some difficulty stapling their recycled material and bubble wrap to the fabric that held the skirt together.
“It’s kind of awkward because the stapler doesn’t fit. It was kind of frustrating,” Heinrich said.
After almost six hours of creating, “Arctic Vibes” came together as a look people might actually wear, said the model Jordan Honeycutt.
“People were saying, ‘Oh, wow you could actually wear that. It looks like a real skirt,'” said Honeycutt, a senior majoring in health science.
The skirt had layers of bubble wrap that were spray painted black on the back side. The layers were then pleated to result in a skirt that could pass as everyday clothing. A fur hat, fish-tail braids, and white dots under Honeycutt’s eyes were added to complete the “Arctic Vibes” look.
“It was terrifying,” Honeycutt said, after strutting down the catwalk. “I have really bad stage fright, and the whole time I was just like, ‘Good vibes, good vibes,’ but it was fun. The crowd was cheering.”
— whitlewis7@gmail.com