Methow Valley Elementary students used their ingenuity to create high-fashion attire and headdresses from wrapping paper, plastic plants, bubble wrap and old clothes.
Bubble wrap, caution tape meet high fashion
In a seven-week-long “crazy free-for-all,” some two dozen elementary school students transformed wrapping paper, plastic plants, bubble wrap and old clothes into sparkling gowns and streaming headdresses in the after-school Trashion Fashion Club.
The kids came up with really creative ideas, said Methow Valley Elementary club co-leader Hillary Ketcham. “We just emptied the bags on the mat, and the kids would have at it,” she said.
The club leaders wanted the kids to have complete freedom to pursue their vision, said Colby Breed, who co-led the club with Ketcham. They’d brainstorm ways to help students fabricate their vision, which sometimes meant the concept morphed along the way, he said.
Many outfits involved long strips of fabric or plastic streamers that created kinetic drama when the students moved or spun around. Flapper-style headbands were popular, as were helmets inspired by Mandalorian Star Wars garb, Ketcham said. There was even a full-body felt banana.
The students showed off their creations for families and community members in a fashion show on Feb. 15.
“It was chaotic fun, for sure,” said Ketcham, who wore a headdress made from yellow police- caution tape to the fashion show.
This was the first-ever trashion club, but it was so popular that they’re doing another one this spring, which filled up on the first day of registration. Kids who’d signed up for other clubs would see what they were doing and join in, Ketcham said.
Community members with interesting materials to be repurposed can drop them off at Methow Valley Elementary for the next trashion club.
