On Sunday, April 19, 2026, the popular Trashion Show at the Party Like It’s Your Earth Day Celebration returned for its second year! The show was presented by Sustainable Princeton and Morven Museum and Garden in collaboration with Princeton Public Library and Princeton Environmental Film Festival.
Twenty participants, across three age categories, designed and modeled original fashion made from items that would otherwise have been discarded or recycled.
Entries were required to use a minimum of 75% recycled content, such as metals, paper, rubber, glass, plastic, and cloth. Designs were judged on the following criteria: Use of recycled materials (must use 75% recycled materials in design), Creative Design (unique, fun, and eye-catching), Workmanship (quality, neatness, attention to detail), and whether the design could be physically worn.
Each participant selected a name for their look and modeled their own design on a runway event at Earth Day celebration.
Winners:
Kids: 8-12: Nellie Spross, “Dragon Beyond”
Teens: 13-18: Charlotte Elga, “The Tears of the Sky”
Adults: 19+: Kari Lloyd, “Plastics for Pollinators”
People’s Choice: Saoirse Vasquez-Grinnell, “Wasted Blooms”
Winner of the Kids Category, Nellie Spross, used primarily old foil balloons to create a stunning look she named: “Dragon Beyond”.
Nellie said she hopes that people who watched the Trashion Show learned that “trash is more than those things that you put in the bin. Trash is killing the Earth, and we have to find creative ways to figure out how to help by reusing.”
Teen winner Charlotte Elga wore her design, “The Tears of the Sky,” which incorporated trash bags, plastic bags, plastic forks, a hula hoop, safety pins, can tabs, CDs, and more!
Charlotte shared her inspiration behind the design: “Water is life. When I think about Earth Day, I think about rain, breathing life into the ground beneath my feet. I was inspired by this idea of water, and wanted to base my design on a fantastical rain goddess character I imagined, who cries pure tears of freshwater joy unto the earth. The trash bags in my design represent the storm clouds that hold the rain inside, and the plastic forks scattered throughout the outfit, as well as the can tabs, are the rain itself.”
She hopes to wear her trashion outfit to the NJ Renaissance Faire this year, “a perfect place to feel like I belong while wearing a hoop skirt made of trash bags.”
Participant in the adult category, Alix Fellman (pictured top left), described her look as a “50s pinup girl going on a picnic in April. She came prepared with a chic raincoat!”. For her design “April Showers”, Alix “made a pair of high-waisted, patch-pocket shorts out of a cotton shower curtain that [she] hand-dyed; a square-necked crop top from plastic bags woven to mimic a madras plaid; and a raincoat out of a clear plastic shower curtain liner. If that plastic shower curtain liner went to a landfill, it could take up to 1,000 years to degrade into microplastics that would pollute our land and waterways. But it makes a very effective raincoat!”
Another adult category participant, Andres Duque (pictured top right), is an art teacher who has been making masks and art with recycled items for many years. He responded to the question, “What do you think the problem with ‘trash’ is?” He said: “Our philosophy and economy. It is about contemporary life buying more things, producing more plastics, and forgetting that the plants, water (rivers and oceans), and animals need to live in a clean environment.”
Kari Lloyd took the prize for best Adult Trashion Fashion with her design “Plastics for Pollinators,” which incorporated plant labels and nursery pots. We asked her: What does the word “trashion” mean to you?
Kari said, “Trashion is an opportunity for limitless appreciation and re-use for materials already heading for landfills and recycling centers. It’s permission to get funky and dress up like Lady Gaga in public. It’s a way for the shy artist inside of me to feel constantly surrounded by opportunity as I take a second look at everything that I am planning to get rid of. I now think… how would that look if I tried to turn that into a skirt? A belt buckle? ah yes, a respectable piece for a sculpture to rest upon my shoulders to show off to my friends and family. It turns disposal into possibility.”
The show was judged by Betsy Marshall, Sustainable Princeton Board President; Melissa Rittmann, Assistant Shop Manager at Morven Museum and Garden; and Erica Bess, Assistant Director of Princeton Public Library.
Prizes were generously donated by Princeton Consignment, Alfalfa, Rita’s, Sprouts Flowers, and the Princeton Public Library.
Watch a YouTube Live recording of the Trashion Show (the audio quality isn’t ideal, but you can see all the outfits—and they are AMAZING).
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