While some spend their earth day picking up trash in a park to dispose of it in a designated dump, the designers of Haute Trash have found a passion in collecting trash year round and reusing it to create high–fashion clothing. Marking their Lake Tahoe debut, they will be sharing their unique fashions April 24 at the Tahoe Truckee Earth Day Festival in a performance meant to prompt thought about both our natural and social environments.
Included in the lineup will be a dress woven entirely from twisty–ties by designer Prima Debris (Kathi Griffis); kilts made from old New Belgium beer banners designed by Seattle–based company, Utilikilts; and a ball gown fashioned out of a ruined river raft and the the six–pack rings found surrounding it by Rayona Visqueen (Robin Worley). Some of the outfits – such as the river raft gown – serve as a reminder to care for the environment even as we enjoy it. Other designs send creative messages about reusing and recycling.
Serving as MC for the show will be Daria Kent – who works with Nevada County Recycles and came on board with Haute Trash when they became a nonprofit organization. During the show she will give facts about recycling, introduce each outfit, and talk about local issues such as growth and watershed.
Haute Trash began in the 80s in Nevada City as a spoof on the fashion industry and its standards of beauty. The nature of their trade as trash fashion designers, which includes picking up roadside trash and dumpster diving, led to shows concerning the then toxic Nevada City dump. Since then, they have remained an avant–garde art form to parody our disposable culture. They have broadened the focus of their shows to reflect the issues surrounding us – from global warming, to energy use, to local issues such as watershed – realizing that they have a unique forum in which to inspire thought and action. Later this year, they will be doing a show which will focus entirely on facts about energy use and what can be done to limit individual use. ‘When people laugh and enjoy the show,’ says designer and model Rayona Visqueen, ‘they walk away thinking.’
Part of what makes the Haute Trash shows so enjoyable is their connection with Vaudeville. This started when Rayona Visqueen went to Hawaii to get her degree as a costume designer (not a far cry from trash fashion, but yes, Haute Trash designers do have other careers). There she befriended and lived with a juggling troupe – a connection which in turn brought Rayona Visqueen and her fashions back to the mainland and the Oregon Country Fair. Haute Trash still participates in the yearly fair, and they now team up with groups such as New Old Time Chautauqua (a ‘do–gooder vaudeville troupe’) for shows such as one last year to entertain and enlighten volunteers working in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina.
While shows such as the Oregon Country Fair and performing for hurricane relief volunteers may be preaching to the choir, Haute Trash is forever trying to expand their audience. In her profile on their web site (check it out at hautetrash.org), Prima Debris touts that she wants to take her trash fashion to, ‘The great runways of Milan, Paris and New York.’ At they bring their shows to more places, they hope to reach a broader audience to get people laughing, thinking and doing.
