By Julianne Cuba
They went from garbage to garb!
Five fashionistas took part in a fierce competition to turn recycled rubbish into couture in celebration of Earth Day at Kings Plaza on April 22. The homespun seamster who sewed up the win said it was a pleasant surprise.
“Everything is self-taught, through magazines, and videos, and movies,” said Jakiem Crayon. “I didn’t expect it, because I felt everybody had amazing points of views when it came to what they were doing.”
Competitors had one hour to fashion dresses from Ziploc bags, aluminum foil, newspapers, magazines, duct tape and recycled fabric as part of the mall’s Recycle the Runway contest for Brooklyn Fashion Week.
It was Crayon’s first time competing in a sewing contest, he said.
“When I got there I was really nervous, I had never been in a competition before,” said Crayon, who walked away with a $1,000 Kings Plaza gift card.
The second-place winner was architect Trudy Miller from Crown Heights — a self-identified “solutionista,” which is exactly what brought her into the world of fashion. Miller wanted to design clothes better than the ones she saw in stores, she said.
“I got into designing clothes, because I wasn’t happy with what I could buy on the market,” she said.
Using an old curtain and a couple of other items, Miller created a shrug-style sweater and a dress that converts into a shirt or jumpsuit — which sparked her idea for her next line of clothing, she said.
“I basically was able to figure out my whole next collection with what I made there,” she said. “It was really fruitful and valuable.”
And the third-place winner, Xiomara Morgan from Fort Greene, hopes for another competition soon so she can improve upon her own designing skills, she said.
“I was happy to even be placed because this is my first time doing something like this,” she said. “And I’m just on the momentum now, I love doing it, and I would do it again — to get first place, of course.”
