First Trashion Show seeking entries, models

The Innovative Arts and Crafts Fair, a longstanding element of the Sequim Irrigation Festival, is hosting a new event this year — one that organizers hope will become a tradition.

The Trashion Show will feature clothing made from materials that might otherwise end up in the landfill. The show will be at the James Center for the Arts bandshell at Carrie Blake Community Park at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 6.

The organizers are seeking more entries so they can put on a great show.

“People can use all kinds of things,” co-chair Libby Ballard said. “Anything you can randomly find that would end up in the trash.”

Ballard and fellow co-chair Chistopher Allen have entries for the show that exemplify the range of garments that could be included. Ballard transformed a coffee bean sack into an intricately tailored blouse, lined with an old sheet and tied at the front with leather and an antler button, likely from Alaska (her former home) paired with a matching skirt reconfigured from a men’s dress shirt.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / Co-Chair Christopher Allen poses with his creation for the upcoming May 6 Trashion Show, part of the Innovative Arts and Crafts Fair during the Sequim Irrigation Festival,

Ballard said that the show and responsible fashion choices are very important to her.

“I grew up with the admonition ‘use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.’ So, I grew up ‘up-cycling’ before the term was even coined. The majority of my clothes were remade from what was handed down to me from my older sister. So, it is second nature for me to look at a piece of clothing, or other household fabrics and imagine how they would look in a different manner. Back then it was because of economics.

“Today I up-cycle to try to bring awareness to the problems that the entire world is facing because we seem to no longer care about quality. The pollution that is directly related to the clothing industry. There is pollution from the dye in denim, to the amount of water used to grow that cotton that I love. Then there are the plastics that end up in our oceans from synthetics. It is all an enormous and overwhelming problem.”

Allen, a recycled metal artist, said that he participated in an event in Santa Cruz, Calif., called FashionART. In 2017, he submitted three pieces, and 2018 with nine pieces.

When Ballard suggested doing an up-cycled fashion show in Sequim, Allen called it a “Trashion Show,” a growing trend in sustainable fashion.

“He brought all his expertise to planning the event,” Ballard said. “I am so thankful for Christopher’s experience.”

Allen will showcase two elaborately designed garments. One, a dress, is made of pull tabs from cans, picture wire and reel tape. The other is made of tile, acrylic off-cuts, wire and pony beads — or, as Ballard said, “clacker balls.”

Said Allen, “I have always liked the idea of turning ‘things’ that are disposable, common, or basic into ‘other things’ that are useful, playful, and/or unique.

“I especially love using the materials as inspiration for the piece, like when I made a ball gown out of Ball jar lids. I also like anything that gets trash out of the environment.”

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen /

He said that unlike Ballard, who has been sewing since she was a child taught by her mother, a professional seamstress, he has had minimal sewing and clothing construction education. A lot can be done with wire and duct tape, he said.

“I’m not a practical clothing person,” said Allen. “I’m a fantastical clothing person.”

Another entry in the show will be an outfit made of potato chip bags. The co-chairs said they have about seven entries so far, would be happy with 10 and are hoping for 20.

Getting involved

The co-chairs said they want people to know that anybody can contribute to this fashion show. A person doesn’t have to know how to sew, or be wildly talented, to produce something from up-cycled materials and join the show.

Ballard said that “if they have just one piece,” not a complete outfit, “that’s perfectly fine.”

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen /

They are also hoping to get more “bodies on the runway.” People interested in joining the fun and modeling some trashion are encouraged to contact organizers at innovativeac@irrigationfestival.com.

They don’t expect to use the stage for the show, more likely the models will take a promenade around the bandshell, and the show will end with a flurry of original hats, created in part at an upcoming hat workshop inspired by the Kentucky Derby-like slogan of the Sequim Irrigation Festival, “Out the Gate.”

The show will have three judges, Maggie Mae, Colleen Robinson and a third, awarding first, second and third prizes. Conor Dawley will emcee.

“This is really a part of the underlying statement of the Innovative Arts and Crafts Fair,” Ballard said. “Be thoughtful of our environment, repurpose and reuse. Be creative. Keep our waterways clean.”

For more information or an application, visit irrigationfestival.com/site/event/trashion-show. Or, email to innovativeac@irrigationfestival.com.

Hat-building workshops

Organizers of the Trashion Show are hosting two hat building workshops at Sequim Museum and Arts on Saturday, April 15, for people to come and decorate a bonnet or hat in honor of the Sequim Irrigation Festival theme, “Out the Gate.” Workshop times are 11 a.m.-12:45 p.m. and 1-2:45 p.m.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen /

Workshop fees are $10 for those with a hat, $15 for those without. Organizers will have materials needed to decorate the hats, but welcome more — “especially plastic food packaging, random decorative items and bulk items people have been saving but don’t know what to do with,” co-chair Christopher Allen said.

“You can be a part of history, because we have a lot of stuff from old Irrigation Festival floats; we raided the float barn,” co-chair Libby Ballard said,

Organizers hope that people will wear their unique hats to a promenade on First Friday Art Walk (May 5) and at the Trashion Show (May 6), where they can show them off at the end.