On the 11th day of Sustainuary, Lawrenceville’s environmental awareness month, students and faculty gathered in the Kirby Arts Center for our weekly Smeeting, where the annual Trashion Show showcased the creativity and innovation of each House. Sustainability representatives in each House, along with other volunteers, were challenged to create beautiful pieces of clothing solely from recycled materials to promote the value of turning what would have been trash into something pretty and useful. Some of the materials utilized were as simple as cardboard boxes and homework papers, and others ranged from ring pop wrappers to old vogue magazines. The Smeeting environment was electric and lively, as each House showcased their final product to the judges: the Student Council, and the audience.
The broad expectations of the Trashion Show allowed for originality and artistry. The representative of Cleve House came up with the motto of “knocking people out of the game.” He dressed up as a boxer with a champion belt made out of cardboard. Other highlights included the Stanley House’s elegant long dress made out of magazines and candy wrappers and Griswold House’s Mandalorian.
The final three contestants were Woodhull, McClellan, and Stephens. McClellan made a fire truck out of cardboard boxes and other recyclable materials, alluding to StuCo’s motto this year, “ROLL.” Stephens combined elaborately stapled papers with house pride to assemble an embellished skirt. Woodhull made a phoenix out of materials found around the school campus.
Ultimately, the decision of which house took home the win was left up to the crowd. Loud roars of joy and pride signaled that the phoenix of Woodhull had everyone’s love. Sustainability representative of Woodhull House Victor Mongon ‘26 stated that “a lot of work was involved to make [his creation]” explaining that he “first went dumpster diving behind Tsai to find materials [and then he] organized sessions in the days leading up to Smeeting where [he and] a few housemates started brainstorming and building, which took five hours.” When asked about the inspiration behind the phoenix, Mongon explained that “the Woodhull phoenix is not only on Woodhull’s House flag, but it also shows [revival] from the ashes like how [his] house did after burning twice.” Mongon also mentioned how rewarding the feeling was after winning the competition this year.
The Trashion Show raises awareness on the importance of recycling, reusing, and reducing waste, not only in our community, but in the greater world we live in.
