For the first time Community Arts Partnership hosted a Northern Ireland wide showcase of aspiring designers’ original outfits at the Trash Fashion Show on Saturday. The fashion show brought together and celebrated the creative talent within different communities across Northern Ireland.
More than one hundred fashion lovers of all ages and abilities worked with professional designers to produce their unique clothing inspired by numerous themes. They created original outfits and accessories on a range of themes including the very topical Olympics, the Titanic and the Jubilee.
The fashion show and fashion design project are both part of Community Arts Partnership’s Trash Fashion, an eco-aware fashion programme which uses recycled materials as the basis for re-branding and re-making items in whatever creative style participants wish.
During a series of community-based workshops, fashion lovers were encouraged to transform and personalise second-hand clothes and materials employing different techniques, including dying, appliqué, printing and stencil. Participants enthusiastically responded to this creative challenge and created original clothing, recycling an array of items, ranging from second hand fabrics to plastic bottle tops, newspapers and even metallic bubble wrap!
On Saturday these talented aspiring designers modelled their creations in a professionally staged fashion show to family, friends and fellow fashionistas in the Kings Hall Conference Centre at Balmoral.
Heather Douglas, Trash Fashion Co-ordinator, commented:
I am delighted to host the Trash Fashion Show and introduce a new range of original clothing created by Northern Ireland People. This fashion show celebrates the talents of our citizens and raises awareness about using eco-friendly ways of creating fashionable garments.
