Since 2010, the Bloomington Trashion Committee has planned annual runway shows featuring clothing made of recycled materials by local designers. But when it's 2020 show was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the committee had to find a safer way for models to walk the runway.
To adjust, Bloomington Trashion Committee released it's 2020 Trashion Music Video Nov. 22 on Youtube.
The Bloomington Trashion Committee and Discardia is an all-volunteer organization for the Center for Sustainable Living project. The organization formed an Annual Trashion Refashion Runway show as a fundraiser for the Center for Sustainable Living project at Bloomington’s Buskirk-Chumley Theater since 2010.
Designers make fashion out of recycled materials and submit it to the Trashion Committee, are made up of Bloomington locals and residents. They encourage anyone to submit their own design and any model can walk their runway regardless of body type, age and experience.
Since the April 5 2020, show was canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Trashion Committee decided to do a music video instead to keep moving forward.
The 10-minute video features 13 different trashion designs that were filmed at Bloomington's Woolery Mill. It was choreographed and directed by Celina Jaffe with music by Janiece Jaffe. In the picture above there are three models with three different designs from different designers.
The first design is by Betty Davis, retired research scientist, who was inspired after she visited the Trashion Refashion show before she moved to Bloomington back in 2014.
Davis’ design is called “Last Pieces,” a crotchet dress made from the last bits of leftover yarn, plarn from plastic grocery bags and VHS tape. It was custom-made for the model with a bare back, handmade button at the neck and VHS fringe for sparkle at the hem, Davis said in an email.
The second design is by Sonya Lee, an arts educator who joined the Trashion Committee because it gave her the opportunity to be creative even with her spinal disability, Lee said in an email.
Lee's design is called “Hoosier Culture,” a combination of a child’s dress, a dance cover up, thrift store fabric, an old T-shirt and a Halloween costume. Lee described it as team support with an attitude while role modeling friendly practices.
The last design called “Mate, Can You Spare A Pen?” is by Cynthia Roberts, who is a retired UPS carrier that has been involved with the Trashion Refashion Runway Show since it began in 2010. Roberts was inspired by the idea of using non-clothing items in making things to wear, Roberts said in an email.
“The blouse is formed from an old embroidered garment, an old T-shirt that had stains and other detractions prior to being combined into a single top,” Roberts wrote in an email. “A hat of braided rags adorned with dysfunctional papermate pens tops of this ensemble.”
Jenett Tillotson, producer of the 2020 Trashion Music Video, said that they were supporting the idea that clothing doesn’t belong in trash.
“Trashion Refashion is all about highlighting the amount of waste we have as a society and want to get people thinking about that,” Tillotson said.
Celina Jaffe, dancer for the Trashion Music Video, said the process was very collaborative and different, especially during a pandemic.
“I felt like that went along with the Trashion spirit of just making things work and using what you have,” Jaffe said.
Janiece Jaffe, mother of Celina Jaffe and vocal artist for the Trashion Music Video, said she was willing to do whatever it took to make the music video exist.
“It adds a marker and says that we're still here,” Jaffe said. “There's more than one way to keep an organization alive.”
