Eco Trash Couture
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Bella, 2016
A Bride on a Mission!
This sculpture is made from discarded plastic Tyvek® (used in sterilization pouches and bags for the medical industry) that was cut into strips and sewn to the dress. The flowers were made primarily by people attending medical industry conferences across the US in 2016. Bella’s goal is to bring awareness to the recyclablity of Tyvek®, and inspire the creation of recycling programs for this plastic film.
Commissioned by Beacon Converters in 2016.
Read this blog post to learn more about the creation and mission of Bella.
WFMZ-TV NEWS
September 25, 2013 news story about the ReDress Upcycled Style Exhibition in the Reading Public Museum.
Eco-Flamenco
5,000 people helped create this passionate dress!
Cereal boxes painted with recycled paint have been transformed into cascades of ruffles that contain over 5,000 eco-pledges—commitments of actions that people will take to help the environment. The ruffles cover a dress made from parachute scraps. This dramatic dress took 650 hours to create and was completed in 2011.
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Which one of the following was NOT an eco-pledge sewn to this dress?
- I will shop locally.
- I will eat organic food.
- I will live in a tree and eat bananas.
- I will use my car less.
- I will reuse and recycle everything I can.
Answer: 3.
We don’t have to live like monkeys to live lighter on the earth! Every moment we make simple decisions that affect the planet. What can you do in your life to help the environment?
Jellyfish Dress
Plastic bags were transformed in this aquatic apparel!
Green dry cleaner bags and blue plastic newspaper bags were ironed together to create the aquatic skirt. The bodice, skirt, tentacles and necklace were made from white grocery bags. The garment was partially created in public workshops in Lincoln City, on the Oregon Coast. Created in 2010.
Commissioned by Lincoln City.
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Put plastic in the recycling bin, not the ocean!
Seabirds, sea turtles, fish, and marine mammals often ingest trash that they mistake for food. Sea turtles have been found to swallow plastic bags because the bags look like jellyfish, one of their favorite foods. Ingesting this debris can seriously harm marine life. Three of the top five types of marine litter are recyclable: plastic bottles, plastic bags, and cans.
Source: Environmental Protection Agency
Couture Plastique
Glamour is in the bag when you wear this elegant gown created from plastic film and bottles.
Plastic bottles are recycled into Eco-spun, the fabric in this gown. The eco-spun evening wear is covered with used plastic packaging film and accented with small circles cut from post-consumer plastic detergent bottles. The stole is knit from used clear plastic bags and lined with fabric from a second-hand white satin prom dress. This Oscar winner for best use of plastic film took 225 hours to create. Created in 2006.
Recycle plastic bags and film at home and at work. Visit www.plasticbagrecycling.org to learn how.
Any of the follow plastic that is dry, clean and free of paper labels can be recycled at your local grocery store:
- Grocery, produce, food storage bags (including cereal box liners)
- retail bags (hard plastic and string handles removed) newspaper and dry cleaning bags
- Retail wrap (e.g., furniture, electronics, napkin, and food containers)
- Plastic shipping envelopes (no bubble wrap/remove labels)
Source: plasticbagrecycling.org
The Recycle Runway Collection
Nancy Judd creates couture fashion sculptures made from trash (the Recycle Runway Collection) and displays her work in traveling exhibitions in high-traffic locations such as museums, airports, and shopping malls. Each of her sculptures takes between 100-650 hours to create, and her goal is that they will last for 100 years. Ms. Judd loves the challenge of making garbage elegant and inspiring people to look differently at waste and consider how we use our limited resources.
Click on any of the sustainable fashion designs to the left to learn more about each piece!
Commissions
Mimi, created in Evanston, IL
Ms. Judd can create a site-specific piece for you or your organization. Nancy enjoys working in collaboration with her sponsors– asking the questions: “What are your waste materials?” and “What are the environmental issues that are pertinent to you or your region?” Using the answers to these questions Nancy designs site-specific commissions that are meaningful and pertinent to the sponsor. Including the community in the creation of the piece adds further depth to the projects. Click on “Mimi” (to the right) to read a blog post about such a project was created in 2011.
Praise from a garment sponsor:
 Recycling Fiesta, sponsored by Target |
“Nancy contacted the local Target store to make the Target recycling dress, and the store team really got into it by coming up with lots of materials we were recycling and even some that we weren’t. That made the team think more about what they were throwing away. It was a great project and the impact of the dress is excellent.” Jim Bosch, Target |
Contact Nancy Judd at 505-577-9712
505-577-9712 or nancy@recyclerunway.com for more information about garment sponsorship.
Exhibitions
Nancy Judd has been exhibiting the Recycle Runway Collection in high traffic public locations around the United States for many years.
Exhibitions
- Fort Collins Museum of Art in Fort Collins, CO, 2017 – solo exhibition
- Farmington Museum in Farmington NM, 2016/2017 – solo exhibition
- Artesia Historical Museum/Art Center in Artesia, NM, 2016 – solo exhibition
- Santa Fe Community College in Santa Fe, NM – permanent collection
- Stamford Museum in Stamford, CT – Fall 2015 – solo exhibition
- Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, WI – Spring 2014 – solo exhibition
- Reading Public Museum in Reading, PA, 2013 – solo exhibition
- Bascom Visual Arts Center in Highlands, NC, 2013 – solo exhibition
- Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts in Melbourne, FL , 2013 – solo exhibition
- New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, NM, 2012 – part of juried show
- New Mexico Arts in Santa Fe, NM, 2012 – solo installation
- Millicent Rodgers Museum in Taos, NM, 2012 – part of juried show
- Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, MI, 2011 – part of juried show
- Smithsonian National African American Museum of History and Culture – permanent collection
Airport Exhibitions
The Recycle Runway collection has appeared in four international airports reaching millions of international travelers with Nancy’s message of environmental conservation.
- 2nd Exhibition, Atlanta International Airport, Fall 2019
- Atlanta International Airport, 2011-2012
- Phoenix International Airport, 2010
- Pittsburgh International Airport, 2008-2009
- Albuquerque International Airport, 2007-2008
Installations
Nancy has also created site-specific installations using trash. Consumption was funded by New Mexico Arts, explores many aspects of the concept of waste.
Praise for Nancy’s exhibitions:
“The exhibition was imaginative and fun! Beautifully designed and executed, Nancy Judd’s artwork delightfully engaged Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport‘s traveling public and employees. Her innovative exhibition creatively used the art of fashion to cleverly convey messages to promote sustainability and recycling. Highly popular, the exhibition generated wide media interest, both local and national, and will be remembered for years to come. “Art works” to make a difference, and Nancy’s certainly does!”
Lennée Eller
Phoenix Airport Museum
It’s fun to see such innovation – in artistic expression and message – amidst the trappings of State bureaucracy. Everyone who sees it is intrigued. The Jellyfish Dress also honors women in interesting ways, which pop out in a public art piece. I like the subversive ways it turns people on to creativity. Bravo!
Carol Cooper
New Mexico Arts
About Nancy Judd
Nancy Judd
Nancy Judd is an artist, environmental advocate, and teaching artist. For over twenty years she has been creating sculptures from discarded materials and using them to talk about how we live on the planet. Nancy installs her traveling solo exhibitions in high traffic locations such as museums and airports.
Nancy also creates site-specific public art, often in community workshops. In Lincoln City, on the Oregon coast, she was asked to create the Jellyfish Dress, a garment using plastic bags that brought attention to marine conservation issues. In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, she used inner tube tires in Tire-less Couture to showcase the City’s commitment to encourage citizens to drive less and use the new bicycle paths.
Nancy giving a TEDx talk wearing the Caution Tape Dress
Nancy uses her sculptures to capture people’s attention and inspire actions in their lives to help care for the planet. She accomplishes this through giving engaging speeches and providing creative eco-events for adults and children in conjunction with her exhibitions, public art commissions and sculpture sponsorships.
Nancy started Recycled Runway while working as the Recycling Coordinator for the City of Santa Fe and then as the Executive Director of the New Mexico Recycling Coalition. In 1998 Nancy co-founded the Recycle Santa Fe Art Market & Fashion Contest, a popular arts event in the international arts destination of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Drawing upon her life-long experience as an artist, she began to create up-cycled fashions to promote this event. This led to the formation of the Recycle Runway Collection which has been exhibited internationally, and received worldwide media attention, including an article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.
Contact Nancy at Nancy@RecycleRunway.com or 505-577-9712505-577-9712
