WWU students take to catwalk wearing the latest in trash fashion

Students sporting outfits made from plastic bags, old newspapers and discarded foam, among other things, strut to a chosen theme song down the third-floor hallway of Western Washington University’s Ross Engineering Technology Building.

All of the outfits have been created by students in the industrial design program as they gear up for the RE Store’s annual Trash Fashion Show, to be held at Western April 23.

Industrial design professor Arunas Oslapas says this is just the second year his design students have been involved with the Trash Fashion show, and designing the outfits helps students learn techniques – like fitting something to a human form – that they would not learn from typical industrial design projects.

According to the RE Store’s “Call for Trash Fashion Designs” website, at least 90 percent of each design must be made of materials that would otherwise have been thrown out. The theme for this year’s shows will be “Plastics Pollution,” and participants are invited to address that theme in the garments and statements they submit.

The Bellingham Trash Fashion Show will be held in the Viking Union Multipurpose Room at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, April 23. Ticket information is not yet available.