Another April, another wonderful Trashion/Refashion show in Bloomington. Thanks to John Streiff-Fraser for the two professional photos, and to my beautiful model, Kara Ratcliff, for making the clothes look so good! You can see more of this show at http://bloomingtontrashion.org/.
I submitted only one outfit this year, "Stellar City Girl, " a rather obvious reference to our little city of Bedford and all the positive changes taking place here since our designation as a "Stellar City."
The outfit consists of four pieces: The first, a skirt made of vinyl banners promoting the Stellar program and an old shower curtain, was draped with a gunslinger-style belt made of choice words cut from the same banners to deliver a positive message about our community. The crop top was fashioned from old jeans salvaged from my mom's house, and fastened in the back with four gold star buttons from the same source. For the hat I cut down a damaged cowboy hat of my dad's (you can see the original in the picture), then edged it with gold Thai silk from my stash and added a starburst medallion cut from an old necklace and a shooting star "tail" of the same silk.
Obviously not just anyone could wear this outfit, but Kara looked fantastic in it. Every time I think about getting rid of all the fabrics, old clothes, old jewelry, etc., that I hold onto, I remember how much fun it is to pull together an outfit without spending a dime.
I'm already collecting plastic mesh produce bags for next year. Stay tuned!
