What’s really great about the trashion movement though is how it levels the playing field.  No longer limited by access to the finest materials, the designer can let creativity reign transforming junk into runway worthy ensembles.

As you can see, these styles would fit perfectly on the Playa.  With a little experience, a designer could learn to improvise with trash on hand, creating costumes on the fly from what little waste is produced by their neighbors in BRC.

Further, while pure trashion creations are marvelous, it’s a great idea to incorporate many useful bits of refuse into your crafting supplies.  There’s a lot of odds and ends that just aren’t sold in crafting stores which can come from any number of household items/appliances.  I can’t remember how many times my costume design problems were solved by simply scanning around the garage or digging through the trash to find just the right “part” to rig something up.

If you’re looking for a wild time, trashion shows are better than a hobo circus.  SF Burners included one in their pre-compression festivities for 2007.  On 11/14/09 Portland will be hosting Junk To Funk, one of the most anticipated dumpster couture contests of the season!

To give you some idea of how excited people are over this mode of fashion, both the Portland Mayor and the Portland Mercury’s Fashion Editor will be presiding over the Junk To Funk festivities.  We can’t wait to do a follow up showing what strolls down the runway.  If you don’t want to miss out, click the Subscribe buttons to the right and we’ll notify you when it’s posted.

So the next time someone tells you they don’t dress up because they can’t afford a costume, you can provide them with an alternative that could become an additional source of income.

Alert! The Dusty Couture Craft-O-Lution Labs have just announced that they will be experimenting with the intention of creating some hard-core Burner Trashion pieces.  Stay tuned for more announcements!

Now, let’s consider what it must be like to craft virtual fashions. Virtual and non-virtual crafting though seemingly different, share the same fundamental intention: to assist in the creation of an experience for you and those who interact with you.

While there are many similarities, let’s now consider some immediately obvious differences.  In the non-virtual world, materials conform to environmental constraints automatically.  A long black strap will naturally hang down a certain way for instance.  In the virtual world, these normally unconscious reactions must be accounted for and the incorporation of such a response then becomes part of the crafting process.  Taking this a little further, we quickly see how programming in the way a material folds, responds to different types of movement, lighting, and numerous other environmental factors paves the way for some intense crafting.

Acting upon brilliant inspiration remains the genesis, manifesting a detailed & beautiful extension of the character is still the goal, but much of what must occur in between is worlds apart.  An interview with Second Life fashion designers is in the works.  If this interests you, click the Subscribe links to the right and stay tuned.

Over the next season our Craft-O-Lution Lab will be experimenting with a long list of ideas which utilize this resource.  In addition to costumes we will also investigate accenting home decor, combinations with light sources (such as E.L.-Wire), interactivity explorations, and generally redefine the boundaries of what this captivating material can be used to create.

We understand if you aren’t interested in waiting for our results to start using this in your own projects so here’s everything we discovered about obtaining it via online sources:

Because we wanted the best price, we went through Tatum Ribbon, everything was delivered quickly and as advertised.  Be forewarned however that there’s a minimum order amount of $100, they require a business Tax ID, their web “catalog” utilizes an archaic image-viewer technology, and the names in the catalog don’t match perfectly with the names on the ordering list!  All of this makes putting your order together time-consuming and more than a little frustrating.  Since their prices are practically half-off the other sources we found, we were willing to put up with the inconvenience.

Even though we went through Tatum, we still utilized the color charts at I Kick Shins.  While Shins is more expensive, they allow smaller orders and don’t require a Tax ID plus their ordering process is MUCH more user friendly.

Don’t miss the imminent follow up articles featuring the results from our Crinoline experimentation labs!  Click on the links to the right and stay connected!