Holler

Editor’s note: Thanks to Brady Lange, a fashion designer in Portland for this story about a sustainable effort and fun event that bridges mountains and skyscrapers.  Brady is a city boy in his adult life, although he has our parents’ rural NW Montana address tattooed on his leg to remind him where he came from.  He’s a true fashion talent, a heckufa guy and the best (only) brother I’ve ever had. –Hilary

From Brady Lange:

Since I’ve been living in uber-green Portland, Oregon (Outside Media’s sister city) for six years now, I have become something of a sustainability nut.  I compost, bike commute, grow veggies, recycle, and use reusable shopping bags.  Litter is a four letter word (unless we’re talking about puppies).  While I feel like I do my part for ol’ Mother Earth, no one is more gung-ho than sister Hil Hutch.
The last time I visited the homeland, aka Columbia Falls, MT, I was hanging out at Outside Media HQ eating pizza, watching funny pointless Youtube videos and being an overall distraction to sister Hutch (hey, what are little brothers for right?)  And then it happened, the faux pas of all Outside Media faux pas’.  I said the words that should never leave one’s lips while within those sacred durisol (polystyeren-free energy-efficient recycled-block) walls.  I asked for a paper towel.

The response from sister Hutch:

“Brady, we don’t believe in paper towels here–they’re so wasteful.  Wipe your pizza hands on your jeans and come over here cuz I need to show you this video of a dog pushing a stroller. You’re gonna laugh your ass off.”

From snubbing plastic bottles to supplying a recycling center at community evnets, Outside Media gang has a sincere dedication to sustainability that I admire.  (If you go to their office, I’m warning you that they only flush the toilet like 1/3 of the time to save water.  Oh, and they treat their compost worms like family.)

So earlier this week when sister Hutch called me up and asked what I’ve up to lately, I puffed up my chest feathers and was proud to announce I had made $10.15 from my beer can returns which paid for the new twelve pack of PBR currently in my fridge. More excitingly however, I made a wedding dress out of an old down comforter and a bunch of other old crap I had found on the side of the road in free piles around Portland.

I’m sure sister Hutch was thinking I had gone off the deep end, rummaging through trash and sewing up clothes for some sort of back alley dumpster wedding party.  The economy is tough but it hasn’t come to that.  No, I was happy to announce I’d be participating in the annual Junk to Funk Fashion Show.

For those of you who don’t know about Junk to Funk, it’s a great organization located in Portland that promotes recycling issues as well as the creative reuse of materials, responsible consumerism and conscious disposal, all through an annual fashion show.  The designs strutting down the runway are all made of discarded materials, (essentially “trash”) created into wearable art and couture fashion by an array of designers and artists.

Junk to Funk works in collaboration with SCRAP, (School & Community Reuse Action Project) another great program, which inspires creative reuse and environmentally sustainable behavior by providing education programs and affordable materials to the community.  They collect clean, reusable creative materials from businesses and individuals.  The SCRAP Reuse Center combines a retail shop with an always-changing, always exciting variety of materials suitable for art, craft and school use with a public workshop room, inspirational ideas and instruction.  They also have an Education & Outreach Program which provide inspirational art and environmental activities at community outreaches, schools and public events.  Every year, SCRAP diverts 50 tons of material from the waste stream, that’s a lot of pipe cleaners.

And to answer sister Hutch’s question, yes I did wash the materials before I had the model put on the dress, we’re promoting recycling awareness, not the Swine Flu.

The event is being held on November 14th, 2009 at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon.  It’s a fun, sometimes crazy event that highlights the possibilities of what we can create when we think before we toss.
For ticket information or to learn more about Junk to Funk or Scrap visit their websites:
www.junktofunk.org
www.scrapaction.org
Holler for haute trash! 

Brady

Tags: Crystal Ballroom, dumpster diving, durisol blocks, fashion design, First Best Place Task Force, haute couture, Junk to Funk, OR, Outside Media, Portland, School & Community Reuse Action Project, sustainable living

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 7:19 pm and is filed under November 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.