Cameras flashed as models hit their stride through the dock of Millwork Common’s Ashton building on Friday night, with each and every outfit of the night’s numerous collections highlighting sustainable fashion and pre-owned pieces. This sustainable fashion showcase is part of the four-day-long Conscious Collections Fest, a community focused event born out of immense collaboration and desire to empower Omaha’s ethical fashion scene.
The showcase had a strength for presenting the boundless versatility of reused or repurposed clothing, driving home the message that leaving behind fast fashion doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice style, elegance, creativity or fun. In fact, sustainable fashion enthusiasts might even attest that vintage clothing pieces oftentimes contain within them a certain personality or charm which are missing from the mass produced adornments of modern fast fashion.
Due to the varying designers and sheer uniqueness of the looks, the showcase as a whole defied generalization. The designers, stylists and models seemed empowered and inspired by the vintage pieces they were working with.
One of the many creatives responsible for the unique character of the showcase was 26-year-old stylist and co-founder of Swap Omaha, Sami Hartong. Hartong’s curations were injected with a retro playfulness. She spoke about how acquiring clothes from secondhand sources like Swap Omaha inspired her approach.
“We actually had a swap on the first Friday of September,” Hartong said. “Two t-shirts got donated to that swap … one of them was a screen print of a photo of Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan in a car–a very iconic early 2000s photo. And then the ‘c*nt’ t-shirt as well. That was one of the donated ones. Yeah. As soon as I saw them, I said, ‘I have to put these in my collection. I have no idea how.’ And then I went to our closet where we keep all of our inventory. And I just dug around until I found a vibe and it ended up being a very 2000s, 2010s vibe.”
Interest in sustainable fashion proved to be high as tickets for the show were sold out. The enthusiasm from the audience could be felt as soon as seats were taken, and the palpable energy was released in bursts of exuberant applause throughout the presentation.
This enthusiasm was ever present in photojournalist and UNO graduate Julie Trinh. An experienced wedding and fashion photographer, Trinh resonated deeply with the sustainability showcase’s aim of empowering the community to express themselves creatively through ethical fashion design. There is no better demonstration of her passion and creativity, than the very outfit she crafted and wore to the showcase.
”I’m wearing my mom’s vintage 90s dress that she wore on the plane as she came to America,” Trinh said. “And then I have a men’s Paul Fredrick button-up, and I just kind of worked it all together. And then my necklace I got from a local designer, and it’s actually a cow tooth that she got on the side of the road.”
The showcase’s final collection was entitled “Miss Yvonne’s Prom,” a tribute to the character played by the late Lynne Marie Stewart on the popular 1980’s children’s show “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.”
The models of this collection not only stood out with their vibrantly colored pieces, but also with their behavior. For “Miss Yvonne’s Prom,” the models ditched their traditional, stoic runway walking techniques and instead trotted, swayed and danced across the stage. This choice embodied the child-like, care-free confidence in oneself that was so endearingly portrayed by the character of Miss Yvonne.
The fashion showcase as part of Conscious Collections Fest stood for many things, community, sustainability, intentionality, creativity and much more. One thing that is undoubtedly evident is the strength of Omaha’s fashion community, because it is only due to incredible collaboration that these events are possible.
For more Information on Omaha Conscious Collections Fest, and the collaborators who made it possible, visit https://www.sustainablylb.com/conscious-collections-fest
