The upcycling fashion show under the stars of Frasso Sabino

With the upcycling of the most diverse materials, the ecological dresses walk the catwalk in Frasso Sabino (province of Rieti). An unmissable appointment. Every year the creativity of recycling designers shows how it is possible to look at what we would otherwise throw away as waste with different eyes.

The clothes parade through the streets of the small village under a clear sky, among the tables arranged for the occasion. In the jury, we observe them one by one to evaluate the complexity of the realization, the recycling of materials, the originality, the creative commitment. In the meantime, a special dinner cooked in a pot and without meat is served.

Thanks to Serena, Simona, the artists, the Frasso Sabino pro loco for their commitment to creating an important initiative to raise awareness on issues that are important to us, such as those of waste and more sustainable fashion.

13 are the dresses competing this year. We describe them one by one: they will amaze you for the often unusual materials for the creation of a runway dress!

Which would you have chosen? What do you think is the most ecological?

First place: Patria (Donata Claps)

It is a reproduction of the Ukrainian national costume created by the artist as an anti-war cry. Would you ever guess what it was made of? Patria is a dress that stands out as such, has no trace of waste, makes you forget about recycling and brings back to fashion.

Made with: disposable surgical masks, hospital gauze, plastic plates and bottles, garbage bags, plastic hay bale twine, umbrella cover, ears of corn.

 

Second place: Flapping of wings (Joy Fumi Akinseye, Sundus Saeed, Valentina Ferrari from Sartoria Sociale KORE)

Created by three designers and pattern makers from three different countries (Nigeria, Pakistan and Italy), the dress wants to convey at the same time the lightness of a butterfly’s flight and the threat of its extinction, with the hope that nature will regenerate itself.

Made with: garbage bags, kitchen filters, bubble wrap, plastic construction site net, clear plastic, dusting duvet, Coca-Cola bottles, electric cables.

 

Third Place: Opposites Attract (Vive e cattive Show)

Quattro colleghe hanno voluto riutilizzare i rifiuti prodotti durante il lavoro per creare un abito che richiamasse proprio la loro attività. “Il positivo e il negativo, il pieno e il vuoto che si completano alla perfezione, bianco e nero che rappresenta lo yin e lo yang, le forze opposte da cui tutto si origina”, così descrivono il vestito.

Realizzato con: film in resina di colore nero, scarto di stampa termica, impianto in pellicola litografica, polietilene espanso residuato da operazioni di imballaggio e confezionamento, carte di protezione lastre per stampa litografica, cartoncino di scarto derivato dalla fustellatura di scatole.

Four colleagues wanted to reuse the waste produced during work to create a dress that recalled their professional activity. “The positive and the negative, the fullness and the emptiness that complement each other perfectly, black and white representing yin and yang, the opposing forces from which everything originates”, so describe the dress.

Made with: black resin film, thermal printing waste, lithographic film plant, expanded polyethylene residual from packing and packaging operations, protection papers for lithographic printing plates, waste cardboard derived from the punching of boxes.

Short circuit (Simona Toma)

Inspired by the artist’s experience, who says of himself: “Being in short circuit requires the strength to dismantle, reshuffle and relaunch the self”.

Made with: corks, mosquito net, plastic straws, iron hanger.

 

 

Flames and weaving (School of arts and crafts Nicola Zabaglia – Monica Cosimi, teacher; Cristiana Pompei, teacher; Maftuna Halimova and Angelina Saura, students)

Students and teachers created a sculpture dress that recalled the flames of incinerators. The waste becomes a whole of intertwining in the fusion.

Made with: strips of photographic paper scraps, ribbons, nylon canvas scraps, plastic sticks, bottle caps, coffee capsules.

Tree (Valeria Zingaretti)

As the musical dress passes, the sounds of nature are heard. They come from the swaying of harmoniously inserted sticks to dress us with what nature itself offers.

Made with: waste woods collected on the beach, beige organza.

 

 

Controversial (Erika Petrozzi)

Created with medical waste, the artist wishes to make us reflect on the hope of life and rebirth, after a long period of suffering.

Made with: masks, drug capsules, fishing line.

Green hope (Andreina and Eleonora Amodeo)

Soft and wide, the dress is an invitation to build a future without waste with hope and common sense.

Made with: construction site cloth, masks and masks holders, coffee capsules.

 

 

CambiaMenti (Associazione Carta Bianca)*

The only men’s suit in the competition was created with the intention of making people reflect on the changes that man is bringing to the ecosystem, to modify mentality.

Made with: paper, mosquito nets, metal structure of disused umbrellas.

*wordplay: it literally means ‘changes’ but in Italian sound like ‘change minds’

 

Rain of colours (Nadia Assogna)

1,710 discs cut one by one from thrown umbrellas to create 95 pom poms, hand-sewn to form flower petals on the bodice and skirt. Care and patience for a stunning result. “I would like no one to abandon broken umbrellas and any kind of waste on the street”, explains Nadia. “Do not leave waste on the street! It costs you nothing but the world gains in health”.

Made with: umbrellas of various colors and sizes now unusable collected over the years with the collaboration of friends and relatives, an old bra, wire frame, plastic and metal hoods.

 

 

The rebirth (Centro Antiviolenza Angelita from Rieti)

With this dress, the artists send a clear and strong message: “We must free the planet from the suffocation of plastic as well as every woman from all forms of violence”.

Made with: garbage bags, plastic bottles, cans, straws.

 

 

Relax (Laura Toma)

Laura was inspired by the film “Freakout” with its story full of magic, extraordinary and hateful characters, but with a great desire to improve the world and make others feel good. A meticulous interweaving of commonly used wraps and other scraps: you wouldn’t say it’s made with Easter egg cards!

Made with: Easter egg and snack wrapping, cushion lining, flower bouquet net, beer and plastic bottle caps, plastic bottles, rubber bands.

My footprint (Simona Malerba)

The intent of the dress is to lead us to reflect on the ecological footprint that each of us leaves on the planet through our choices. What we eat, the way we dress, our behaviors. Everything leaves an indelible mark.

Made with: scraps of bath sponge, bubble wrap and packaging scraps, plastic hooks made from shower curtains, toilet paper rolls, paper clips, a bunch of wheat and an olive leaf.

 

 

 

Here we wrote about the previous editions: find out the dresses of the past fashion shows!

Photos by: Gregorio Maria Mattei, Dress ECOde, Francesco Franceschi, Sara Gentili. Video by Dress ECOde.