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BY JOAN KIM

In print | March 27, 2008

Every week, tensions mounted high as the contestants and audience of Project Runway sat on the edges of their seats, wondering who was in and who was “out.” The reality series, having finished its fourth season, has inspired a huge following even within the Swarthmore bubble.

With the last season over, Kitao Board member EveLampenfeld ’08 found a way to cure PR withdrawal and promote awareness about how carelessly we throw out reusable items every day. Last Friday, March 21, Recycled Runway, hosted by the Kitao Board in the Kitao Gallery, encouraged students to use their creativity in a Project Runway-like competition creating fashion out of recycled items.

With this project, Lampenfeld combined her passion for fashion with her interest in sustainability. Her directed reading on sustainability inspired her to plan an event that was both fun and that would spread awareness. Lampenfeld added her own new spin onto Project Runway to combine two interests that intrigued many who decided to participate. “I guess I wanted people to be more aware of what they’re throwing away,” Lampenfeld said.

The Kitao Board, also the judges for Recycled Runway, collected wire, newspapers, food wrappers, cardboard, and scrap fabric from the costume shop to provide supplies for creating eco-friendly couture fashion.

All the contestants were fashionably late, but when everyone arrived, the competition began with a bang. Much like Project Runway, the competitors were allowed three minutes to gather their materials from the giant pile of recycled materials. Instead of dilemmas over whether or not to use light-washed or dark-washed denim, the competitors had to choose between newspaper and plastic bags.

Accompanied by upbeat music, contestants scrambled to collect anything and everything including newspapers, chocolate wrappers, plastic bags, bubble wrap, water bottles and fabric. The frenzy was crazed but all in good spirits.

The contestants, who split into four groups, had an hour and a half to design creative garments for themselves or a teammate to model down the runway. Assisted by duct tape, scissors, permanent markers and creative minds, the groups quickly “made it work.”

Prizes were awarded for the Most Creative Recyclers, the Most Drastic recyclers, the Recyclers who had the most fun and the Grand Prize. The winners received assortments of snacks — always a good idea for hungry college students.

Considering the dismal pile of scraps of plastic bags and newspapers, I expected no more than a newspaper dress shoddily duct-taped around a body. However, many audience members came for the runway show with exclamations of “ooh” and “wow” and rightfully so. Some would call the pieces absolutely fierce.

One set of outfits that involved toga-like wraps of fabric with capes and metal wire headband begged some explanation. Nemo Swift ’11, one of the two outfit models, said he drew his inspiration from other artists. “The aesthetic influence I generally have in my head is Michel Gondry [whose work] generally inspires me” Swift said as he went on to describe the theme as being “mystical and plutonian.”

Among the other designer clothing were a halter top dress and a strapless dresses made with scrap fabric accompanied by unique hats. The two dresses, one more haute couture and one more commercial, were very different but two of the most impressive works of the evening. The first dress was made of a three tiered skirt made of newspapers, cut in strips for volume, with a plastic bag train. Crinkled paper and tape made for some environmentally friendly earrings. On the front of the dress, the “American flag is superimposed on a crane disaster,” explained designer Blaine O’Neill. The theme of the piece was “Disastrous America.”

The other dress was a tube-dress with paper ruffle edges on top with a braided fabric strap that held up the dress in an innovative way. “We’re currently inspired by water,” Laura Rainey ’09 said, while Ayanna Johnson ’09 added “because water is a resource that is constantly recycled.”

The Recycled Runway show was successful in providing students with an opportunity to piece stylishly piece together outfits with materials normally found in a recycling bin, which is usually only done during Halloween and Screw.

Auf wiedersehen, until the fifth season of Project Runway begins. Until then, R stands not only for Runway, but for Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

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