Last night’s Trash Fashion Bash, a benefit for International Sustainable Solutions, featured nearly 40 custom-designed outfits made entirely of recycled and salvaged materials - inner tubes, building scraps, garbage bags, cans, etc. Though the show itself was a little hard to sit through (thanks in no small part to a constant stream of stilted, high school valedictorian-esque remarks by MC Robin Worley, aka “Rayona Visqueen”—”Tonight, we are celebrating sustainability with all its attributes… What we are creating today will prolong the beautiful tone of this place for generations to come,” etc.) the costumes themselves represented an inventive range of efforts. Backstage, dozens of models (including Seattle Art Museum director Mimi Gates, Seattle City Council member Peter Steinbrueck, developer William Justen, and Seattle Department of Planning and Development director Diane Sugimura) were bustling about while the show progressed, adjusting their hair, stuffing themselves into ill-fitting costumes, and guzzling cheap red wine in preparation for their moment in the spotlight.

I didn’t get a shot of my favorite costume, a stiff metallic strapless sheath designed and worn by DPD planner Lynne Barker (overheard backstage muttering “I wish I could sit down”), but here’s a close runner-up—Steinbrueck’s Austin Powers costume, made of recycled orange plastic bags: