Lenora Buenviaje has been making dresses out of waste materials for the past seven years, and says wearing clothes made from items such as recycled newspapers, plastic wrapping and rice sacks can be both economical and fashionable.
Using a foot-operated sewing machine, the 51-year-old Filipina seamstress stitches, and weaves plastics and other materials into inventive and fashionable frocks and gowns, sometimes completed by headdresses.
“The bubble wraps from delivery packages are nice looking and make for a good design, especially the black and white wraps,” she said at her shop in Cainta, Rizal Province.
Photo: Reuters
White wraps were good for making fairy or wedding gowns, she said.
The dresses sell for US$30 to US$50 and are used for everything from debuts — a coming-of-age party for a woman’s 18th birthday — to weddings.
In Asia, there is plenty of waste material for Buenviaje to work with: About 80 percent of global ocean plastic is estimated to come from Asian rivers, and the Philippines alone contributes one-third of that, according to a report this year by the University of Oxford’s online publication Our World in Data.
“It’s important to recycle or utilize used materials so we can help our earth,” said Buenviaje’s client Lalaine Alcalde.
The recycled material used for each dress depends on what her clients are looking for, said Buenviaje, who lives in Cainta, about 15km east of Manila.
Her gowns are sometimes used in beauty contests and pageants, she said.
“I get delighted whenever they win, the designs are simple, but they still win,” she said.
Buenviaje hopes in-person fashion shows and competitions that were halted during the COVID-19 pandemic would soon resume.
She also aims to organize fashion events to showcase and inspire others to create clothing out of recycled materials.
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