By Caitlyn Morral
[Image courtesy of sbu.edu]
St. Bonaventure’s Tread Lightly is getting trashy.
On Tuesday, April 21, the Rigas Family Theater in the Quick Center for the Arts hosted this year’s Trashion Fashion Show. Nine contestants walked the stage, modeling unique outfits made out of recycled material by another designer.
The Trashion Fashion Show is an annual event sponsored by the campus recycling group Tread Lightly. The show encourages students to reuse and recycle materials that may normally be considered trash.
Assistant curator at the Quick Center for the Arts Sean Conklin hosted the event and put a lot of effort into making sure that the show went as planned.
“I’m continually blown away every year at how creative everyone is and how good the show turns out,” said Conklin. “I think this year—more than previous years—people were very thoughtful and really took into account every aspect of the show.”
Students had to be creative and used a variation of materials such as these: soup cans, bottle caps, organic compostable materials, gum wrappers, foam, fruit netting, newspaper and coffee cup holders.
Conklin designed two of the winning fashions, “Andy’s Glitter Factory Gurl” and “Savaged Beauty, Reclaimed Grace.”
The first, made completely from bottle caps and inspired by Andy Warhol’s muse Edie Sedgwick, was modeled by junior journalism and mass communication and Theater double major and “Top Trashionista” winner Chernice Miller.
“I’m really happy that we won this year,” said Miller. “Sean went to all of the bars in town and asked them for the bottle caps that were left over at the end of the night. He got seven bags, but we ended up only using half of a bag.”
The second dress was modeled by freshman undecided science major and “Trashionista” winner Asia Williams.
“The idea behind the dress with the white and gold outlining was to be a representation of Mother Earth and her purity,” she said. “Over time mankind has started to destroy her and she is being covered with filth, which was represented by the black head piece that ran down the length of my back. Overall, I think the end results were wonderful and that the dress was modeled nicely to show the detailing.”
In addition to the Top Trashionista and Trashionista titles, three other participants emerged as winners of the Top Model, Top Model Runner Up and People’s Choice awards.
“My look was inspired by spring time and planting season,” said Maggie Morris, director of the St. Bonaventure Bona Buddies program and designer of the Top Model design, “Roofiooo,” modeled by David Bryant. “I also love the movie ‘Hook’ and the character Roofio, and I could not have been more proud of my model David Bryant. He did an amazing job.”
“When I began thinking of possible movie references combined with my own experience as a model, I immediately turned to Derek Zoolander for help,” said People’s choice winner Erik Furgal. “Once I picked the inspiration for my design, I had to begin brainstorming as to what materials I would use.”
Furgal said he raided his floor’s recycling room for leftover cardboard boxes and trash bags; scavenged for discarded newspaper all over campus; and used gum wrappers to fashion a pair of gloves.
The only materials he purchased were spray paint and a roll of tape.
Freshman journalism and mass communication major Taylor Walker was inspired by Angelina Jolie’s character in the movie “Maleficent.”
“The items used in the design were three different types of black garbage bags, which made the dress and cape. My headpiece, which was the main accessory to prove I was Maleficent, was made out of two cardboard hats and black foam,” she said.
The fashion show also included a panel of three judges who decided the winners of four of the five awards. Among them included artist in residence at St. Bonaventure, Anne Mormile.
“I’m so glad I was able to participate as a judge,” Mormile said. “I felt that all of the contestants were creative, and it was a tough choice, for sure. I can’t wait to see what they come up with for next year!”
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