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Keeping Up with Upcycling Fashion Designer Rachel Mace

upcycling fashion designer rachel mace
Designer Rachel Mace in her Garbage Glamour dress

Writer’s Note: Over the past couple of months,  I have followed Rachel Mace’s journey to become an alternative fashion designer. She started in the fashion industry as a model and later decided to style herself and others in “trashion”, the transformation of trash into runway fashion.

After the lead event planner of Spokane’s Sustainable Uprising fashion show became ill, Rachel Mace and model friend, Taylor Weech felt it was their responsibility to keep the show on track. They began helping to coordinate the third annual festival along with a fashion show celebrating local music, fashion, art and film being held on Saturday, September 10th. Unfortunately, she has had little time to add new pieces to her Totally Trashed Fashion collection, and models will reshow Rachel’s previous designs.

“I had to decide whether to help coordinate the show or spend time making a new line. I took the chance of trying something new by helping create the actual show, not just the pieces which would be walking in it,” said Rachel.

The Totally Trashed collection will soon include an elegant, formal evening wear line made of different kinds of paper, including tissue and wrapping papers. Rachel will be experimenting with new techniques to improve the flexibility and comfort of her designs and have plans to construct larger dresses, similar to her book dress shown in the Runway Renegade fashion show in August.

Rachel has also joined non-profit Beyond Pink to raise awareness and money to fight breast cancer. Beyond Pink helps less fortunate women in Spokane to pay for certified breast exams using thermography, the innovative use of thermograms to study heat distribution in the body to better detect tumors. She designed a bra to be auctioned off at the Beyond Pink lingerie show and made another collaborative piece with Mary Tafuri, a jewelry designer and friend, for the October event.

Rachel is an up-and-coming alternative fashion designer making major moves in Spokane’s fashion industry. Check back to see her latest additions to her Totally Trashed Fashion collection, and learn how to support her next runway show. You contact the designer at [email protected]

Image credit: TotallyTrashedFashion at Flickr (used with permission)

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