Trashion: fashion and art made from waste
Trashion is a word used for art and objects created with reused and recycled elements. The word comes from the junction of “trash” and “fashion” and was coined for the first time in New Zealand in 2004. The concept was first used to describe “making something out of nothing” for aesthetic purposes, exclusively artistic. With the rise of eco-fashion, called “green fashion”, Trashion now defines traditional pieces of garment made from recycled materials.
Used in the 90s to describe conceptual costumes, usually linked to competitions or parades, the term Trashion is now widely used in the Creative Economy to describe any item, object or accessory built using materials partially or fully recycled.
How Trashion emerged in the US
In the 1990s, the American artist Ann Wizer created a set of costumes made from plastic waste to celebrate Earth Day in the Philippines. She founded the XS Project, a charity based in Jakarta, Indonesia. It was only in 2005 that the Trashion movement took off in New York, after becoming Urban Gypsy Circus, the theme of an interactive art party created by multimedia artist Miz Metro at a club called Plan B. Since then, Trashion became a popular style in art and also in fashion.
The Trashion concept in the NCC Ecobrands
The group has always been interested in innovation in the recycling of some materials as well as recycling for the brand’s products. In 2011, it launched the 2012 summer collection hand woven with details in pure silk. In some pieces, it was used only silk from unsuitable cocoons, rejected by the industry. The collection was paraded at Fashion Rio and generated great repercussion for its innovation and sustainability.