The Bainbridge Island ReFashion Show is a fun and educational annual community event presented by ReFashion Bainbridge, a program of Sustainable Bainbridge. It began back in 2016 and continues to this day under the leadership of Naomi Spinak. Its mission is to showcase the creativity of reuse and repurposing in making wearable and inspirational apparel.
ReFashion 2024 Recap
Competition Categories: Upcycled Ready to Wear - made from used textiles or used clothing from any source Mystery Box - create a wearable outfit from contents of the box Shop Your Closet* - Goal is a materials budget of zero dollars. It is a backwards design challenge – Use what you have or your friends have already in their closets, unused and unloved. Let the materials guide you, instead of coming up with a design first. *New category
Thank you to our cash sponsors below!
1st Place - Upcycled Ready to Wear "In the Darkness I Will Grow" Designer and Model - Edy Cooke This piece is entirely constructed out of used and discarded t-shirts found in thrift shops and friend’s closets. All applique embellishments are hand-drawn and cut, and carefully applied with a sewing machine. This piece is inspired by the emotional nature of a long winter -- a time best used to rest, heal, and reinvent oneself. A lot of growth happens in the winter’s darkness, whether metaphorically inside one’s heart and mind, or literally as seeds underground waiting for their cue to push through the soil. Water comes in the form of tears and rain, cleansing and giving life to that which needs to grow.
2nd Place - Upcycled Ready to Wear "Coral Polyp Panoply" Designer - Brooke Fotheringham Model - Colleen Diessner
Coral Polyp Panoply is a high-low halter sundress featuring sculptural layers of heat-manipulated upcycled textiles, paper, and plastic waste working together to create the illusion of a living coral reef. The materials upcycled in this outfit are clothing from the Goodwill Outlet Bins including tutus, dresses, saris, scarves, a sarong, and a windbreaker. The dress also incorporates small scraps left over from previous sewing projects. Dyed plastic paillettes made from beverage containers and food packaging including gallon milk jugs, 2-liter bottles, berry containers, dome cake containers, and take-out containers. It also features elements made from two kinds of upcycled lenticular window shade, one paper and the other non-woven fabric.
3rd Place - Upcycled Ready to Wear "Flannel Tetris Designer and Model - Wendy McAbee
Why Flannel Tetris? Wendy was cleaning up her sons’ room and found an old Tetris light with some of the blocks lying on the floor. The Tetris puzzle pieces breaking away from their normally organized column of blocks were becoming something beautiful on their own. She tried to create that same feeling throughout her design. After converting a pair of jeans into a skirt, the patchwork design was stitched on the lower half. As the patches near the top of the skirt, they start to break up and become less organized in both the color pattern and the way they are sewn. The outfit continues with a flannel tank top with contrasting patches, buttons, and a flannel ruffle bottom between the patch pockets on the skirt and the cropped and flannel-trimmed crew sweater. The sweater ties the skirt in with the patchwork cuffs and the buttons coordinate with the buttons on the tank top. Materials used include two pairs of jeans and two flannel shirts. The button cover kits and stabilizer for the collar were already on hand, and Wendy only purchased thread to finish this outfit.
1st Place-Shop Your Closet "Artemesia" Designer - Michaela Snowmassara Model - Gene McInnis
2nd Place - Shop Your Closet "Spring Goddess" Designer - Moniece Charlton Model - Kelly Lauren Benson
This creation started life as a long gown with a sheer black underslip. To bring this black and white dress back to a spring level color and theme, a vintage lace piece was added to the bodice, several handmade large fabric flowers and bright green leaves were attached. Materials used include a silk-like turquoise scarf, vintage crochet laces, green wool fabric from a jacket, pieces of denim jeans, fabric paint, beads and buttons on hand, a cotton quilt quarter and a ribbon from a gift box. Attached to the back are two scarves. The top layer has a hand sewn fabric tree appliqued to it. All fabrics were sourced from cast off pieces of clothing. It is also embellished with tiny flowerettes and "patches" made from iron-on images of my watercolors. The woven straw hat is vintage, with a painted crown of flowers and images of hummingbirds, butterflies, flowers and a dragonfly. This Goddess walks in the beauty of nature and embodies the springtime cycle of life coming back out of the darkness!
The mystery box that Lilah got had fabrics of all types and a very pretty tablecloth with one stain. She made a shawl from the tablecloth. There was an impressive hand-embroidered napkin and she took the embroidered part off of that and sewed it onto the back of the shawl. On the front she cut off little roses from one of the fabrics and sewed them onto the front of the shawl. There was a lot of white fabric so she decided to paint/tie-dye onto it with old fabric paints and made a shirt with that. She also had a fun white eyelet fabric and made two different fabric pants with a flower fabric of red flowers and green leaves. Lilah feels like the fabric and outfit were so bright, and she was painting so many flowers, and there were so many flowers on the fabric, so she thought of spring from the colors.
2nd Place Mystery Box "In the Sunshine, I Will Bloom" Designer - Edy Cooke Model - Makelle Jenise
Edy’s mystery box contained scraps from a pink floral bedsheet, toile placemats, a lace window valance, eyelet lace scraps, a well-worn woven scarf, two pillowcases with needlepoint floral design, a couple yards of binding trim, and a baggie of knit cotton facemasks. These materials created a breezy babydoll dress with coordinating vest, both giving a stylistic nod to the psychedelic fashion of the late 1960s. The bedsheet, pillowcases, lace valance, face masks, and eyelet lace scraps were used to create the dress, and the scarf, placemats, and trim binding were used to create the vest. The spring-like colors and floral motifs of these materials inspired the piece name, “In the Sunshine I Will Bloom”, giving the wearer a vibrancy that can best be captured by the joyfulness of spring after a long winter.
1st Place - Student Audience Choice "Stinging Style" Model and Designer - Isabelle van Thiel
This piece is inspired by the Pacific Sea Nettle, which is native to Washington State’s coastline. The dress is modeled to display all the physical characteristics of the Pacific Sea Nettle, from the orange bell of the jellyfish, which is the dress bodice, to the white oral arms, which make up the skirt. The dress also sports the jellyfish’s characteristic tentacles, which are made of dyed nylon rope. Most of the dress is made up of reused cloth, recycled plastic shipping materials, reused plastic netting from potato sacks and reused red string from holiday wrapping for the embroidery on the dress.
2nd Place - Student "Gingham Delight" Designer and Model - Domenica Guaranty Rogers
The first thing Domenica noticed when she looked into the box was the color and the brightness. It immediately made her think of spring and sunshine, and she tried to carry over those themes into the final piece. She was really drawn into the yellow gingham, so she tried to highlight it in the top and in patches on the shorts and jacket. There was also lots of fun lace, so she incorporated it into the collar of the jacket, the bottom of the top, and in patches on the shorts. In her box, she also received a beat-up, ripped baseball cap. She didn’t really know what to do with the fabric, but on the top of the cap, there was a decorative button that she used as a fastener on the back of the top. She had a lot of tulle but didn’t want to make something super puffy, so she came up with the idea to rip the tulle into strips and knit it back together, and that’s what she did for the hood. Finally, she used the solidness of the plain yellow fabric to her advantage in the shorts and the jacket. She hopes these pieces bring you thoughts of sunshine and hope!
3rd Place - Student "Ruffled Summer" Designer - Azalea Snowmassara Model: Willa Mae Saunders
This dress is inspired by pastel-colored flowers and mid-summer brunches,. It’s a ruffled dress fit for a late day at the pool. Azalea was originally inspired to create a very fluffy ruffled dress, but ended up thinking that a lightweight summer dress would be easier to wear in the upcoming warm weather.
Committee Choice "Re-Dress yourself" Designer - Bryn Lashmet Model (on right) - Lily Lashmet
Tired of looking at the same old clothes but not willing to give them away? But then once you begin to Marie Kondo your wardrobe, you realize just how many times you looked at it but didn't put it on? And back it went. Well. . . . this entry speaks to that very dilemma. The artist used a gray sweater, passed down to her by her daughter, who was "tired" of it. The daughter is modeling the new version of this sweater now. She dug out an old long-sleeved t-shirt which was a favorite to pair with sweaters in the deep of winter, but it lost interest in the last few, and the fit "just wasn't right," so she paired these two items with a dress which kept speaking, "You'll wear it if you find the right occasion." And so it has hung, silently and sadly, since the day it was bought at the Bargain Boutique here on Bainbridge Island. The artist deconstructed that dress and used it in both of her two entries this year. Bryn loves the idea of reinventing old clothing to make something more exciting and new. This project inspires her to use materials she already owns and make them into something she’d be happy to wear. She likes the idea of this as being sustainable and something that, with a little time put in, others could do as well. Bryn hopes you all are inspired to add some creative thinking along with your version of Marie Kondo and cleaning out the closet.
The Show 1-2pm Runway Show 2:30–4pm Trails walk 4:30pm Awards Activities: Jewelry exchange, Screen printing shirt or bag Exhibits: Clothing dump from our donations, Domestically sourced outfit, ReFashion books
ReFashion Committee: Naomi Spinak (chair), Dawn Snider, Deb Rudnick, Rachel Knudson, Jane Martin, Diane Landry, Jenn Herrmann Host Sponsor: IslandWood Judges: Rebecca Rockefeller, Robin Little Wing Sigo Emcee: Dominique Cantwell Photography: Nick Felkey Photography (and assistant Jayden Hwang) Post-show Exhibit: Bainbridge Arts & Crafts In-kind Sponsors: Island Cool, Zutto Vintage & Antiques, Bon Bon Candies, Sisters' Cider House, Nova Vita Consignment Boutique, Naomi Spinak
