These clothes came from where?
Flatwood Fashion Show to model astonishing attire picked from the Rappahannock dump.
Page 8
You’re not going to believe what’s coming out of the Flatwood dump these days. Better yet, behold the astonishing attire for yourself at 4 p.m. this Saturday, Feb. 22, at the first-ever “Flatwood Fashion Show” — its unique runway at the RAAC Community Theater in Washington.
“My mom [Dee Dee Slewka] and I came up with this idea together because we both frequent the ‘Flatwood Mall’ a lot. It has lots of real cool things and while we feel like a lot of people here appreciate it I sort of feel it’s underappreciated for what it is,” explains organizer Roxanna Pearl Beebe-Center of Woodville.
"So much waste is created by the fashion industry — people buying things and then throwing them away, and Flatwood Mall is great because you can give clothes a new home. So it's good for the planet, but it's also good for your wallet. I wanted to show that you can use old clothes and still look fashionable and do the planet a service.”
And to think Roxanna is a mere 14 years old and in the 9th grade.
Numerous students her age from Rappahannock and surrounding counties held a dress rehearsal this past weekend ahead of this Saturday’s inaugural fashion show, albeit a few slightly older folks will also be modeling. Like Mindy Alexander of Woodville.
When’s the last time Mindy modeled clothes?
“Never!” she replied.
“Really, this is to support a young woman and her admirable endeavor,” Mindy explained. “I worked at the Washington Firehouse thrift store for a long time and you just see so many great clothes that can be reused. And that’s the way of the future.”
Even out-of-towners are arriving in Rappahannock for its one-of-akind fashion display of previously worn clothing — winter coats and tweed jackets to summer dresses and pantsuits donate daily to the Washington dump’s so-called “share shack.”
Among them is the artistic Andrea Turkalo of Massachusetts, a close friend of Roxanna’s family, who is giving some of the clothing to be modeled Saturday a most creative upscale look.
“It’s a Japanese dye method,” she explains, “and it’s usually blue and white. It’s basically tie dye but it’s Japanese. What I've done here is all denim from Flatwood.”
In fact, there will be raffles for attendees to win “gorgeous upcycled Flatwood finds.”
Just a few of the 20 or so models who will be participating in the Flatwood Fashion Show are Ava Genho and Hannah Thede of Rappahannock County High School and Belle Meade School respectively, as well as Abigail Bennett of Greene County and Charlotte Gupton of Orange County, who attend separate schools in Charlottesville.
The fashion show is billed as an event to both encourage sustainability and celebrate the county’s two refuse and recycling centers, located in Washington and Amissville.
In keeping with the theme,
all proceeds will go to Virginia’s nonprofit Southern Environmental Law Center, its mission to use the power of law “to champion all the things you love about the South: clean water, healthy air, mountains, forests… SELC strengthens laws, we make government agencies do their job, and when necessary we go to court to stop environmental abuses or to set farreaching precedents.”
“They’re an environmental organization that does a lot of [work] in the southern states and they impact Rappahannock,” Roxanna observes.
There is no admission charge to the fashion show, however donations will be accepted.