Who knew you could use old issues of OC Weekly for something other than birdcage liner! Jenny Porrett, a fashion design student at Fullerton College found a way to preserve them forever instead–50 copies, to be exact. Recently, she was asked to participate in a design completion called OC Fashion Showcase. The designers had to create a piece using recycled materials and show them on the runway at the OC Mix.
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“I thought, 'It's the OC Fashion Showcase'–so why not use an OC Weekly?,” the 22-year-old commented. However, even though she frequently reads this infernal rag, finding enough copies to make a couture gown was a bit challenging. Porrett and a friend tag-teamed stands in South County and came up with enough issues (cover story was the return of the Gabrieleños) to pull it off, and rather well at that.
“It took me about five days,” Porrett says. The garment is fully lined with each copy sewn on; she used soda tabs to make the corset and Solo cups for the rose detail. She mentioned that she had never made anything out of recycled materials before, and yet the piece ended up winning second place in the competition.
The only problem during the construction? “The ink!” she laughs, “Everywhere! It was everywhere! All over my sewing machines, all over my hands!” Lysol wipes cleaned up her workstation fairly easy but her skin…not so much. “I would sew the dress running between work and classes, and people would be like, uh, 'There's black all over your face.'”
Porrett has been kind enough to give her dress to the Weekly, where it shall rest in our office as the best piece of fan art we could ever receive.
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