Relay: Mesquite’s Monster Fashion Show
Mesquite, Texas: Last Saturday at Town East Mall, recycled couture fused with the spirit of Halloween at the Great Big Spooky-Wooky Recycled Costume Contest.
This was the 6th annual recycled fashion show Keep Mesquite Beautiful has hosted, and all were welcome to submit their festive upcycled garments.
Image: Keep Mesquite Beautiful
Their main advert featured a Tim-Burton-inspired Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, (played by the mystical Helena Bonham Carter). Keep Mesquite Beautiful’s executive director Paige Swiney took the time to breakdown the process of creating the queen– a job far less taxing then you might have imagined.
Swiney and a few other board members worked together in parts, gathering and piecing together recyclables that people would come into contact with on a daily basis. The computer components were gathered at a local electronics equipment recycler, and the billboard wasn’t that much of a challenge to obtain.
“…They can hold [the billboards] for 90 days until the owner claims them. If they’re unclaimed…they will recycle them.” Keep that in mind, D.I.Y. or DIE crowd.
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect about the costume was the actual construction. “We taped it onto the model,” Paige explained. “It probably took…only a few hours. The hardest part was doing the makeup.” The ease and flexibility of creating an affixed costume turned out excellent, and that approach is always easier for busy parties interested in upcycling old parts into works of wearable art.
Other costumes included this clockwork dolly and the awfully fierce cousin of Godzilla. About 4,000 people saw the show over different periods of time, which was a stellar turnout for this public event.
“There is a lot of imagination and creativity that goes into these costumes,” Paige stated. “If we created something for Halloween, or inspired people to think about their Halloween costumes differently…we can challenge people to think differently about trash.”
Sure, there’s eight days left until Halloween. But that’s more than enough time to gather materials to whip up your own recycled Halloween costume this year.
Flora Gothica 