A Load of Rubbish - The Recycled Fashion Show

By: Expat Advisory Posted: January-01-2006 in

Expat Advisory

A standing-room only crowd at Elsewhere hooted and hollered as over 50 participants presented their work to celebrity judges at Bonghain Mode Khao Ao Stung Sangker (The Stung Sangker Fashion Show) - Cambodia's first fashion show featuring creations made completely from trash.

Founded by local artist Leang Seckon and facilitator Fleur Smith, they were joined by new and veteran designers, local performers (Belle of Sovanna Phum, Dy Saveth) and numerous organisations (Rajana Association, Cambodian Womens Crisis Centre, Community Sanitation and Recycling Organization, Youth Star, Java Arts, I-Ching Boutique, Meta-House).

By the time a roster of local celebrity Judges (Sapor / Sapor's Modeling Agency, Eric Weissman / Scan Gallery, Bill Grant / Landscape Architect) had made their choices, it was clear that this was just the beginning of something huge. Coverage of the event has gone from local to international and the project staff are finding themselves pleasantly overwhelmed.

Expat-Advisory queried founders Seckon and Fleur to get the scoop on how trash became fashion.
How did the Rubbish Project get started?

Local artist Leang Seckon was already using found objects and litter in his work after travelling to exhibitons overseas and seeing the natural beauty of other places. He went on a trip down the famed Stung Sangker River (Battambang) in 2005 and was shocked to see how choked with plastic it is, and how polluted it was from mining processes. He wanted to do something about it and discussed with his friend Fleur and they had the idea for The Rubbish Project.

What are the main goals?

Simply to raise awareness of environmental issues in Cambodia through the arts.

Urban areas in Cambodia generate heaps of unprocessed litter. Is this problem being addressed adequately or is it getting worse?

It still seems to be a problem right now. People working directly with rubbish understand well about recycling, but we are not sure if ordinary people have caught the idea yet or not. Perhaps not.

Cambodia doesn't have a huge industrial capacity. Do you think part of the current problem with trash is that recycling takes more planning and effort?

We don't know a lot about the recycling industry, but we're learning. We know that some sorted trash is taken to Vietnam to be recycled, and recently we heard one company has bought a big machine to process plastics.

Is it appropriate to focus on rubbish and the environment with so many other social issues in Cambodia? Are environmentalists imposing foreign ideals of tidiness on a country with bigger worries?

For us, we just aim to raise this issue before the Cambodian community and we'll see what happens. Environmental issues are not only about tidiness, but about health and the well-being of the whole community. The Rubbish Project was initiated by Seckon; hopefully we can all work together on this issue with mutual respect despite our nationalities, focusing on improving our awareness of the environment and motivating others to do this too.

What were the initial steps for the Rubbish Project?

First we just talked to people and had a sense that we had hit a nerve. Most people were quick to say they were very worried about environmental issues here and to volunteer their time, their services and their celebrity to any project we had going on!

Why a fashion show? What does fashion have to do with trash anyway?

The initial idea comes from a similar show that has taken place in New Zealand for ten years called Trash to Fashion. Fashion shows now are interesting in Cambodia and the people who got involved were very keen and quickly came up with amazing designs and ideas. It is making a point, to make fashion from trash: both that we can find value in recycling things, and to point to the environmental problems that come from our modern throwaway lifestyles. This year we are especially thinking about plastic choking the waterways of Cambodia.

How many entries did you have?

There were 51 entries, which was surprising and wonderful.

Why do you think you've had such a strong interest from participants?

The idea seemed to capture people. The participants were from a wide range of backgrounds, some were artists, some were rubbish pickers in fact, some were kids, some were expats, most were Khmer.

How many people do you estimate came to the Fashion Show? It was crammed.

We copied 300 programmes and they all went so we guess more than 300 people came (May 18). We heard a lot of people could not get in and went home again, rumours of a traffic backlog even! We have been sad to hear people say they could not see everything. But our main point was to hold the event and get it into the Khmer media as a small part of the advocacy work that has already been going on by many NGOs and the Ministry of Environment.

With international fame and acclaim , what comes next?

Next? A rest!! On the agenda: we plan to join an arts festival to be held in Siem Reap in March next year focusing also on issues of water. This is especially relevant at this time as there is one canal linked to the Siem Reap River which has suddenly become very polluted.

The Rubbish Project would like to thank (amongst many) Scandinavia Hotel, Lune d'Autumno, The Riverhouse, Couleurs d'Asie for contributing prizes, and The Shop for 'thank yous'. Many thanks also to World Wildlife Federation for their enthusiastic support as well as the use of their logo. Also deserving of praise are Nicolaus Mesterharm (Meta House) who provided music for the show, Frank Schlichtmann (background images) and photographer Vandy Rattana (documentation of the show).

Links:
Recycled Fashion Show Photo Gallery

The Rubbish Project Weblog:
http://www.therubbishproject.blogspot.com

Updates and discussion at
http://www.expat-advisory.com/forums/rubbish-project-fashion-design-competition-and-show-may-18-vt2381.html