Transforming trash into fashion highlights beauty of our world

Dust off your glad rags for a great night out at Waitakere’s Schools Trash to Fashion® Awards showcase next month.

Head a long and see the amazing creations made out of the everyday items most of us throw away at special performances on September 12 and 13. The winners are announced on September 13.

Organised by Waitakere City Council in association with Keep Waitakere Beautiful Trust and The Trusts Charitable Foundation, the Schools Trash to Fashion® Awards features the creative talents invited students from primary, intermediate and secondary schools across Waitakere.

There are 323 entries from more than 600 students for this year’s awards, under the theme Our World.

“We want designers to celebrate the beauty of our world and to consider how we need to take care of it,” says chair of the council’s Culture and Community Committee Judy Lawley.

“Every year I am stunned at the creativity of these young people, not just from a fashion perspective but also their commitment and understanding of the underlying environmental philosophy of the event.”

Several new features have been added this year, including a plastic shopping bag category, the only one in which they can be used.

“Every year, plastic shopping bags are among the most common materials used, so we decided to add the challenge of confining them to one category and signal our desire to reduce the use of plastic shopping bags in our city,” says Cr Lawley.

Category winners go into the running for the overall award, the Westpac Supreme Award, valued at $500.

Several special awards this year include the Pacifica Award for top Pacific-inspired entry, sponsored by the Waitakere Pacific Arts & Culture Centre, and Unitec is offering two study awards valued at $2000 each.

Categories in this year’s competition are:

Green Dreams (organic category): Sponsored by Earth Angel. Garments inspired by myths, fairytales or legends using materials created by nature and have kept their original quality such as linen, cotton, silk, harakeke, fallen plant material, shells and wood.

Junkyard Superheroes (inorganic category): Sponsored by The Body Shop. Using inorganic materials that are man-made. Prepare to be amazed at the creative uses for old tyres, bits from computers, wire, plugs, metal or wheels. Discover their eco special powers and what they might be!

Plastic Bag Palace: Sponsored by Bags Not – Towards a Shopping Bag Free Waitakere. This category is the only one where plastic shopping bags can be the main material. It promises to be a right royal occasion with weddings, Hollywood glitz and glamour, with angels, kings and queens for inspiration.

Cutting Edge (fashion category): Designers have to reconstruct existing clothing into a totally new outfit ready for the catwalk using a bit of ‘wardrobe surgery’.

Colour Your World: Sponsored by Project Twin Streams. In this category designers create garments that explode with colour and movement which relate to the stream environment, celebrate our waterways, colour, flora and fauna.

Accessories: Junk to Jewels and Head High (sponsored by Moth Masks of the Head). Entries in this category can be a whole outfit from any other category or as individual pieces.

What: Schools Trash To Fashion® Awards 2009
When: September 12 (7.00pm) and 13 (2.00pm).
Where: Mau Theatre, Corban Estate Arts Centre, Henderson.
Tickets: $5. Book online at iTicket, www.iticket.co.nz (booking fee applies).

Go to www.trashtofashion.com for more information.

ENDS

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