Students at Fresno High School both modeled and designed the outfits as part of the FHS Sustainable Beauty Fashion Show. Photo by Frank Lopez

A local high school and business teamed up this weekend to host a fashion show for clothing made entirely from recycled materials.

The “FHS Sustainable Beauty Fashion Show” was held at Royce Hall on the Fresno High School campus Saturday. This was the second year of the show.

The clothes for the fashion show were designed and modeled by students, part of Fresno High School’s Sustainability and Creativity Program.

Sponsors include Eco-World, a local clothing and textiles recycler in Fresno, the City of Fresno, the city’s Beautify Fresno street clean-up program and D’Ambrosio Trading, Inc.

Jene D’Ambrosio, founder of Eco-World and D’Ambrosio Trading, said the purpose of the show was to call attention to the importance of recycling clothing, fabrics and other materials.

The fashion creations were made of material including latex balloons, playing cards, fabric bags, shopping bags and even compact discs.

Fashion show judges included Blooming Belle Marketing Owner Jennifer Bedoyan, The Art of Anger Owner Melissa Knight and Fresno Chaffee Zoo Development Program Manager Jazzmine Young.

“The whole point is to teach the future generation that you don’t have to throw away everything. You don’t have to take a part in fast fashion and to take more part in recycling textiles and making sure that you’re conscious that what you are buying is just one-time use,” D’Ambrosio said.

Fast fashion refers to inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends—Fast fashion brands include H&M, Forever 21, UNIQLO, and Zara.

She said that most people are not aware that textiles don’t decompose in a landfill. On average, every household throws away approximately 81 pounds of textiles every single year.

D’Ambrosio said there were only five attendees for last year’s fashion show. This year’s had 50 attendees, with hopes that it continues to grow each year.