Sonoma Community Center opens registration for Trashion Fashion events

The Sonoma Community Center has opened registration for its annual Trashion Fashion events.

This year marks the 13th annual “Trashion Fashion Show,” where participants/designers create wearable fashion made from materials that have been previously used, found at thrift stores or rescued from the trash.

While this catwalk event is the highlight of spring’s trashion season, the center is also offering a variety of other related events leading up to the show.

This year, a “Trashion Fashion Design Class,” will be offered to children ages nine to 17, where they will be given the tools, materials and guidance on how to construct their own garment from unconventional materials, from beginning to end. The class begins March 4 and enrollment includes the student’s registration fee for the Trashion Runway Show.

There’s also “Barbie: Reclaimed & Reinvented,” an event where participants will keep a Barbie doll out of the landfill by transforming it into an upcycled showpiece. These new works of art will be featured in Gallery 212’s exhibit and silent auction.

Mail-in Barbie entries will be accepted, meaning that almost anyone anywhere can participate. Participants are encouraged to have fun, be inventive, interpret this anyway they like, but use only recycled materials and wholesome imagery.

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

The third event is for local dog owners interested in upcycling — reusing discarded objects or material in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original — materials into fun costumes for their pooch.

Participants can enter the “Dogs on the Catwalk” Trashion Fashion contest for dogs. Judges will be on hand to award each four-legged entry based on their participation at this beloved event, scheduled for Saturday, April 29 at Sonoma Community Center.

Deadlines to enter the Trashion 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 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. All event entry fees go to supporting the center’s arts and educational programming.