Fashion show featuring garbage-bag garments highlights experience of kids in foster care
Designs in Winnipeg show find new purpose for bags, often used by foster kids to move belongings to new homes
A group of designers beamed with pride as their garments — made entirely from garbage bags — were showcased at a Winnipeg fashion show intended to spread awareness about the struggles and resilience of children in Manitoba's foster care system.
Models showed off the creative looks, all designed by youth in foster care or those who have aged out of the system, as they strutted down the runway Friday evening for the Voices Garbage Bag Fashion Show at the Graffiti Gallery on Higgins Avenue.
Among the models were three provincial cabinet ministers — Nahanni Fontaine (Families), Uzoma Asagwara (Health), and Bernadette Smith (Housing) — along with Virgin Radio host Ace Burpee.
The material for the outfits — garbage bags — was chosen to symbolize how children in care often move their belongings in trash bags when transitioning from one foster home to another.
"We wanted to change the narrative," said Aerynn Meagher, manager at the Manitoba youth care advocacy group Voices, one of the organizations behind the event. "Let's make something tragic into something beautiful."
The show, put on in collaboration with Graffiti Art Programming Inc., was intended to help Manitobans understand issues children in care face, Meagher said ahead of Friday's event.
"Children in care are not garbage," she said. "We are hoping to foster some change."
Taylor Sokolosky was among nine designers involved in the show. Her runway design — a dress adorned with flowers on the front and a shawl draping over the back, all made from the plastic bags — was inspired by a dress she received from a foster parent six or seven years ago.
"It was the first thing that a foster parent had ever bought for me," Sokolosky told host Marcy Markusa in an interview with CBC's Information Radio. "Just to receive it felt really good, and [I] felt that I was wanted."
LISTEN | Transforming garbage bags into fashion to support kids in care:
Like many other children in care, Sokolosky used plastic bags to carry her belongings when transitioning to a new home.
"In the beginning, when I'd be moved around in garbage bags, I always felt like I was trash, because that's what you use garbage bags for," Sokolosky said.
But designing her garment for the fashion show, despite some challenges when working with the plastic material, transformed the meaning of garbage bags for her.
"It feels like garbage bags … they're just not meant for garbage only."
Sokolosky said she could barely sleep the night before the event, because she was filled with excitement about sharing her work with family, friends and others in the community.
'Who are you wearing?'
On Friday evening, dozens of people poured into the gallery and took snapshots of the models, the designers and the garments.
A spokesperson for Voices and the gallery began the show by saying 400 pieces of luggage had already been donated to help ensure children in care don't have to use garbage bags to carry their belongings.
Smith, among the first to walk the runway, wore a poofy, floor-length dress. The housing minister was met with cheers from the crowd, and became emotional as she thanked the designer and spoke about her own experience in foster care.
Burpee was outfitted with a pair of drawstring shorts that had his name written on the back, along with a vest featuring a logo for Voices.
The radio host was followed by Asagwara, who wore a jacket featuring a neon orange flower on the front and a peace sign on the back. It was paired with a skirt that had a message on the back that could be read under black light reading "peace on Earth."
Fontaine strutted the runway to the song Material Girl by Madonna. Her garment was a knee-length dress with pointed sleeves that jagged outward near the shoulder. The dress also had a long trail that included the phrase "we are not garbage" on the back.
The designer joined Fontaine on stage, asking, "Who are you wearing?" which drew a hearty laugh from the audience as the families minister pointed to the designer.
Fontaine told the crowd she too was a child in care.
"If I could share anything to our future [children] who are in care, it is to know that they are loved, that there are adults that love them," she said.
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With files from Angelina Pelletier