Salt Lake Community College’s first-ever ‘Trashion Show’ intended to attract attention to sustainable clothing and spotlight an industry that massively contributes to waste stream.

By Marjorie Cortez

Salt Lake Community College Fashion Institute student Victor Matvienko strutted his stuff on the green carpet Monday, observing Earth Day by taking part in the college’s first ever “Trashion Show.”

Matvienko, completing his first year as a fashion institute student, sported an intricate, short-sleeved patchwork shirt he sewed from fabric scraps that would have otherwise ended up in a landfill.

Instead, he spent “more than 50 hours” at a sewing machine repurposing scraps into a fashionable shirt with a high-low hem.

“You have intersecting seams so you have to be precise,” he said.

He was among about a dozen rising designers whose creations were modeled on the makeshift runway in a hallway of the community college’s South City Campus.

Some were modeled by their creators, others were modeled by friends, family and fellow students.

Some of the outfits were recycled from thrift stores but one student’s dresses were fashioned from vintage tablecloths, breathing new life into the lace-adorned and embroidered textiles.

Shandi Pearce, also a first-year fashion institute student, repurposed her grandfather’s jeans, which he had intended to donate to charity.

“I said ‘Absolutely not. I can’t let you do that,’” Pearce said.

Heat was used to etch sizable skulls on each of the jean’s legs. “I thought the design was so cool. I said, ‘There’s no way you can donate these. I have to take them,’” she said.

She had saved them for a while and had the opportunity to repurpose them into barrel leg jeans, using another pair of jeans she thrifted for additional fabric.

She completed the look with a men’s shirt she bought from a thrift store, shortening it to fit her body and finishing it with a raw hem.

Pearce said she regularly shops in thrift stores because “I feel kind of guilty like buying something brand new like full price. Mostly, it’s just because I know I can get inspiration from a thrift store and make it into something I actually want to wear.

https://www.deseret.com/education/2024/04/22/earth-day-fashion-polluter-sustainability-slcc-upcycled-recycled/