Fashion or Garbage Moguls?

Since today is Earth Day, ABC 7’s Good Morning America did a special report on Living Green and talked about the show “Garbage Moguls” on the National Geographic channel, which offers new ways to look at our trash. This new fashion of being eco friendly and going green has spread and is a good way in which to educate future generations on creativity and repurposing products. The show “Garbage Moguls” follows the employees of the company TerraCycle, who use only garbage and used equipment to run their business. The following link shows a school tour they did but also explains about the innovativeness of the company that has been around since 2001. They are a great example for the compact challenge since we can save money and eliminate our waste from the little we do choose to purchase by repurposing—even encompassing our garbage into our fashion. The compact challenge focuses on changing our consumption habits and this company is trying to reform the habits of America by showing creative ways to repurpose items we deem trash—and they are making a profit.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/garbage-moguls-4314/overview#tab-Videos/06558_00

Also, YouTube has a video of “Garbage Moguls” that is related to the future of fashion-repurposing trash into wearable, useful outfits. Check out these two videos as creative ways to start off our compact challenge. We should not consume as much as we do, but for the items we do consume, we should repurpose and reuse them in creative and inventive ways to receive the maximum benefit and make a statement in the process.

The most recent episode of “Garbage Moguls” is on tonight on the National Geographic Channel at 9 PM I believe, but I unfortunately do not have that channel on my cable plan but anyone who does, I encourage you to watch and blog about any new ideas you learn.

Another creative idea from the website: Make a wallet out of a cookie wrapper!

In Fashion-ology, Kawamura explains the origins of fashion as he tells how it began with the "institutionalization of exclusive custom-made clothes known as Haute Couture" and how "the fashion industry is not simply concerned with the production of adequate or pleasant clothing but is concerned with the production of new stylistic innovations that satisfy the image of fashion" (Kawamura 45). All things considered, I believe the reuse of trash such as seen in the making of the poncho by the Garbage Moguls, could be seen as a form of Haute Couture and it is a new stylistic innovation. Whether or not it satisfies the image of fashion can be determined by society as a whole, but at least it is a start in a eco-friendly direction.

Heather Crane