Sonoma Community Center opens registration for Dirty Fashion events

The Sonoma Community Center has opened registration for its annual Trash Fashion event.

This year marks the 13th edition of the “Trash Fashion Show” where participants/designers create wearable fashion from materials that have been used, found in thrift stores or salvaged from the trash.

While this catwalk is the highlight of the spring litter season, the center is offering other related events to the show.

This year, the “Tracion Fashion Design Class” will give children from nine to 17 years old tools, materials and instructions on how to build their own clothes from ordinary materials from start to finish. The class begins on March 4 and registration includes the student’s registration fee for the Traction Runway Show.

There’s also “Barbie: Reclaimed & Reinvented,” an event where participants take a Barbie doll out of the trash to transform it into an upscale show. These new works of art will be featured in the Gallery 212 exhibition and silent auction.

Barbie Mail entries are accepted, meaning anyone, anywhere can participate. Participants are encouraged to have fun, be creative, interpret this however they want, but use recycled materials and healthy imagery.

Thanks in part to a partnership with Recology – Sonoma Marine, free toys are available to the community on a first-come, first-served basis at the Sonoma Community Center. Meanwhile, artists are encouraged to use their own puppets if they have them.

A third phenomenon is for local dog owners who want to upcycle – recycling discarded items or materials to create a product of greater quality or value than the original – materials for their wallets as fun clothing.

Participants can enter the “Dogs on the Catwalk” dog fashion contest. Judges will be on hand to award prizes to each four-legged entry at this popular event held Saturday, April 29 at the Sonoma Community Center.

Deadlines to enter trash events are Friday, March 24, for Trashion Fashion Runway Show and Friday, March 31 for Trashion Barbies.

For event entry forms, rules and more information, visit TrashionFashionSonoma.org or call 707-938-4626, ext. 4 Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. All event admission fees support the center’s arts and educational programs.