- January 14, 2025
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ORLANDO – Turns out the challenge of converting repurposed materials into haute couture will not go out of fashion anytime soon.
For the second year in a row, the annual Trash 2 Trends Recycled Fashion Show – held at SeaWorld Orlando on Saturday, Feb. 3 this year – was sold out.
Hosted by Keep Orlando Beautiful, the fashion runway show challenges designers to craft high-end fashion garb from recycled items and waste, such as plastic bags, newspapers, bubble wrap, straws, plastic bags, cardboard boxes, vinyl records, CDs and the like. Models strutted down the runway in front of almost 500 attendees wearing intricate custom-designed outfits and accessories carefully pieced together after weeks to months of labor.
Designer Ben Van Beusekom crafted a dress using debris left behind by Hurricane Irma, appropriately titled “Evolutionary Irma.” Another outfit – created by Meaghan Moreno and titled “Unidos Contigos” – paid tribute to Puerto Rico to honor those affected by Hurricane Irma and Maria.
At the end of the show, the three judges – Maxine Earhart, Barbara Hartley and Orlando commissioner Patty Sheehan – awarded five of the 32 designers.