The Green is the New Black Fashion Extravaganza opens tonight at the Carbondale Recreation and Community Center. The event features volunteer fashion models who walk the runway in original designs that incorporate reused materials. The show is a big hit in Carbondale, selling out five years in a row. Claire Woodcock went to the first, full-cast rehearsal to get a behind-the-scenes peak.
About 70 volunteer models, designers and crew members circled up in the Third Street Center’s auditorium for a group stretch. Then, chaos erupted. Designers pulled models into the hallway for fittings while the crew started from the top. This is what Paul Kimpling, a model, loves about fashion shows.
“It took a lot to build up enough courage to do it the first time and I was so nervous, but now it's just kind of fun,” he said.
Katie Walker is a model liaison; she wrangles dancers and models who are needed on the runway.
“People in varying degrees of nakedness onstage for the run through. Prepares you well for that night of the show,” Walker said.
She organized the models into their lines. Dalene Barton is one of them, who explained what a line is while being fitted.
“OK, so there's songs, and there's different designers for each song, but some songs have three lines walking per song, so there's different lines per each designer...so different clothing line per designer,” she said.
She’s been put in four lines and said she’s a little stressed about it.
“But I feel like it's going to be good. It's more the choreography than anything like remembering every single walk for every different line and getting those right.”
There are over two dozen designers participating in this year’s show. Sarah Peterson from Paonia is one of them. This is her third year with Green Is The New Black and said it allows her to express her support of eco-fashion. Peterson is really into upcycling.
“There's this massive amount of clothing that is just generated by fast fashion and it's incredibly degrading environmentally and socially," she said. "For me there's a call to utilize that resource and give it new life and kind of utilize the waste stream to make new and beautiful garments.”
She said clothing is one of the most environmentally destructive industries on the planet.
“Between the dyes, extracting resources, the water it takes to water all the crops, it's incredibly harmful to the environment," said Peterson."This group of people is really pioneering a way to revolutionize fashion and utilize materials that would end up in the dump and then a lot of times they don't decompose.”
“In order to be in this show you have to have a sustainable element to your design," said Amy Kimberly, creative director of the fashion show and Carbondale Arts' executive director. She directs the models and works on transforming them into, as she said it:
"These super beings full of strength and courage.”
Although Kimberly’s impressed with the extravaganza’s growth over the years. She continues to be shocked that the fashion industry hasn’t invested in sustainable designs more.
“Hundreds of thousands of pounds of fabric make their way into the landfills around the world every year, she said. "I mean just think of all the single socks you've thrown out. So being able to reuse what's already out there is a huge factor."
Bill Shepherd got involved this year because of how the theme, "supernatural," reflects the community.
“The whole thing to me is a spirit of expression of these people and this town," he said. "The local talents. all of them. The designers, Amy's crowd, everybody it's a really nice thing and maybe that could be called supernatural. A rising up of a group of people really wanting to express themselves and it's really pretty.”
This why it sells out every year. The people volunteering work for change and the people who attend leave inspired. A preview begins tonight at the Carbondale Rec Center. Doors open at 7.
