Nelson Mandela Bay teenagers upturned the trash can to create a rainbow of dresses using only plastic packets and old newspapers in a fashion show with a difference on Friday.
The grade 9 class of Collegiate Girls’ High School was asked to make a wearable garment using recycled materials with different textures, colours and more than one type of material as part of their technology subject.
Panellists from The Herald and Weekend Post, Algoa FM and SPAR Eastern Cape chose five winners plus an overall winner, modelled by Jaimie Miller, 15.
Jaimie and five friends devised a “Breakfast Ballgown” to show how an average day starts with waste, with a skirt made of cardboard cereal boxes, a top embellished with Nespresso coffee pods, finished off with braided bracelets made from plastic packets.
Bella Ludski and her friends took an old Christmas tree to make her flapper-style dress with fairy lights, topped by a recycled Christmas wreath headpiece, while Siya Ndabeni’s group happily tore through dozens of chocolates and oranges to get her cute cocktail dress made from newspapers, colourful choc wrappers and an orange bag.
Plastic straws are now an environmental no-no, so Mivuyo Mpepo’s group accessorised her black plastic bag mini-dress with a colourful belt made from the offending items.
Amy Breetzke’s group decked her out in an upcycled umbrella and transformed an old plastic tablecloth into a jacket, but her handmade shoes of polystyrene packaging, wine corks and plastic grass were what really caught the judges’ eyes.
Lena Liu’s team also repurposed plastic to make an on-trend transparent jacket worn over a white sheath dress sewn with sparkling CD shards and Monopoly money.
Other wild and colourful creations included Halloween cobwebs spun from glue, newspaper rosettes, a mini-dress made from empty chip packets and much more.
SPAR Eastern Cape purchasing manager Alan Stapleton said the retail chain had already sold three million fewer plastic packets this year, and more than half a million paper bags, as part of its commitment to recycling.
The Herald is asking readers to drop old newspapers off at selected SPAR stores. For each 10kg of newspapers recycled, R1 will be donated towards The Herald Christmas Cheer Fund, which helps give deserving recipients a merrier festive season.
Despite their green efforts, however, as plastic is such a pervasive environmental pollutant, the girls will still have plenty of material for future fashion shows.