NOTE: “Today” and “tonight” refer to Friday, April 24.
FORKS — “The Empress,” “Go for the Gold” and Ripley the dog: All will appear on the runway tonight.
The inaugural Rainfest Trashion Show is a pageant of wearable art of the upcycled, recycled kind, and it struts into the limelight at 7 p.m. at the newly open Rainforest Arts Center, 35 N. Forks Ave.
Admission is free to this event, part of the Forks RainFest that will wrap up Saturday.
The doors of the center will open this evening at 6 p.m. for a trash trivia contest and, to further warm up the audience, live music by Port Angeles singer-songwriters Howly Slim and Sandy Summers.
Sarah Tucker, the teaching artist who’s been plotting the Trashion Show since last winter, will serve as mistress of ceremonies — and of course don her elaborate fly costume made of repurposed materials.
The fly’s just the start.
Fashionable artists
Trashion Show artists range from preteens to professional designer Trisa Katsikapes, while the models include local circus artists Sadie LaDonna and Shawn Kellogg as well as Ripley, the aforementioned shepherd mix.
Yes, Ripley is a canine, and he’ll be wearing the “Go for the Gold” outfit created by Zoe Tucker, 15.
LaDonna and Kellogg will show off designer Natalia Robinson’s works, made from bicycle inner tubes interwoven with thrift-shop silk, wool and satin.
Robinson also has the “Empress” piece in the show: an ensemble with an upcycled-silk corset, a skirt made of a sweater and a train combining old gold curtains and yarn handstitched to resemble peacock feathers.
The Trashion Show contestants are divided into three age categories: 12 and younger, 13 to 17 and 18 and older.
The Franklin Elementary Marine Debris Art Club is participating, as are local Student Conservation Association interns; artists Robert Stephens, Hank Walker, Celeste Tucker and Skyla Dawkins; and even Washington CoastSavers coordinator Jon Schmidt.
The contestants, all of whom provided their own models along with their fashions, are competing for prizes donated by local businesspeople.
The Trashion Show judges are Wendy Bennett, Forks High School’s art teacher; Forks City Attorney-Planner Rod Fleck; and Helen Freilich, the waste reduction specialist for the city of Port Angeles.
To find out more about the Trashion Show, email Sarah@tuckerart.com, and for information about the RainFest, visit www.ForksWA.com.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
