For Essie Martin 鈥21, modeling a dress made from trash at the 13th annual Trashion Show was a win-win proposition.
鈥淚t鈥檚 fun, and it raises awareness about waste,鈥 she says.
Martin’s outfit was made from discarded plastic and accessorized with plastic straws once sipped by 乐播传媒 students and by customers of Dunkin鈥 Donuts and Starbucks. 鈥淲e collected the straws from trash bins for months,鈥 she says.
For the prospective geology major from Newcastle, Maine, walking the runway matched her personal style. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a fun way to be yourself on a stage. And since you鈥檙e wearing trash, it鈥檚 gonna be ridiculous no matter what you do!鈥
Photographs of the 2018 Trashion Show by Theophil Syslo.
The annual Trashion Show is produced by the student EcoReps and, like the prior 12 editions, this year’s was a 鈥渘ight of fun and ridiculousness and lovely outfits,” says Tom Twist, the college’s sustainability manager.
鈥淏ut the underlying thing is, of course, the message: We鈥檙e still wasting a lot, and we want to increase awareness of that and of all the things 乐播传媒 is doing to be more sustainable.鈥
One of those EcoReps is Liv McCulloch 鈥21, an economics major from Sunderland, Mass. 鈥淟ast year I just watched the show. This year, I wanted to get involved, and get my friends involved,鈥 she says.
So McCulloch teamed up with Sophia Ball 鈥21, a psychology major from New Hope, Pa., to design a Wizard of Oz-themed outfit made from discarded Halloween costumes modeled by Cassidy Martin 鈥19, a European studies major from Wilmington, Del.
鈥淧eople buy things on Halloween that they use once and throw away,鈥 says Ball. 鈥淭hat was our inspiration.鈥
鈥淲hich means there were 35,000 of these disposable thunder stick noisemakers. Who knows what happened to them afterwards?”
For designer Michael Somkuti 鈥19, a mathematics major from Ambler, Pa., an interest in pro video gaming, or eSports, inspired his outfit.
Professional gaming 鈥渉as been exploding in scale and viewership,鈥 he says, pointing to a recent League of Legends World Championship event in South Korea that drew an audience of 17,000, who rocked the venue with inflatable noise makers throughout the competition.
鈥淲hich means there were 35,000 of these disposable thunder stick noisemakers,鈥 he says. 鈥淲ho knows what happened to them afterwards?”
Somkuti used similar sticks to make 鈥渁 kind of jumpsuit鈥 that was modeled by T.J. Emmerman 鈥21, a prospective politics major from New York City.
鈥淥ne, it promotes an interest that I love,鈥 says Somkuti. 鈥淎nd two, I hope that companies that promote eSports will think about their own environmental impact as they grow. Sustainability is important for corporations to keep in mind.鈥
Third, he adds, 鈥淚 loved plastering the logo all over it because eSports are super in your face, so I wanted my outfit to be super in your face.”


