Slow Fashion Month at Wastebusters
March is Slow Fashion Month and Wastebusters are shining a light on promoting slow fashion as the norm and reducing the environmental and social impacts of textile waste.
They’re putting on an array of events, including REFASHION, a fashion show cut differently.
Wastebusters has collaborated with Fabricate and the Wanaka community to present the show. It will include their styling team curating catwalk outfits from mood boards submitted by the community, conscious creations from the Fabricate workshop and local sustainable designers. There’ll be an educational element throughout, too, that aim to showcase the problems with fast fashion and that it’s possible to look stylish by shopping second-hand.
Chelsea Holdom is the Events & Projects Coordinator at Wastebusters and says the idea for the fashion show was sparked during last year’s month, when it was mentioned that the team would love to put on a fashion show in the future.
“There’s been a lot of work going into this one – there’s been some huge important collaborations going on with Fabricate and the workshop,” says Chelsea.
“Fabricate run workshops and so everything that’s done in their workshops uses repurposed materials, which are either donated, rescued or found at op-shops, and so they’ve got a whole category to themselves of students that have participated.”
For the Wastebusters mood board category, they have selected ten boards that were submitted by the public to use as inspiration to pull together outfits. The final category will involve local creators, makers and designers showcasing their creations, which will have a sustainability focus.
There is potential for the Fashion event to return in the future, too. As this is their first time putting an event like this on, Chelsea says they’d love to keep building on it.
“We’ve had so much support for the community and so much enthusiasm from entrants, so we do believe this will be something that will be a really awesome, entertaining and educational experience for people. We’d love to keep doing it and making it bigger and better.”
If you’re unsure where to start, Wastebusters website and social media pages offer sound advice. They ran a survey last year, seeking to discover what the local community knew, what they’d like to know more about and how the team could empower and educate people when it comes to slow fashion. They discovered that 66% of those surveyed would choose quality over quantity, 45% shop second hand, and 25% take great care of their clothes to reduce environmental impact.
“We’ve also got our Wasties Wednesdays where we’re asking people if they’ve bought something cool from Wastebusters to take a selfie, pop it on your Instagram or Facebook story and tag us. We’re give away a voucher each Wednesday this month,” says Chelsea.
In April, Wastebusters will be running their next round of Repair Revolution events, too. This is where you can pop by with items that may need repairing. The team are always looking for volunteers, both with sewing skills, or just to lend a hand and help the event run smoothly. The Queenstown event will take place at St Margaret’s Church Hall in Frankton.
If you want to get involved with any of Wastebusters workshops, or want to learn more about slow fashion, head to wastebusters.co.nz
