Recycling becomes fashionable in Manatee County Library System

Library's fashion show displays teenagers' ingenuity.

By Jessica Salmond
| 3:20 a.m. April 13, 2016

Lily Potter carefully rethreads the needle before sewing a hem on the plastic bag.

East County
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Although she is 13, Lily Potter doesn’t like limitations.

So designing items for the Teen Recycled Fashion Show was a challenge fit for the Haile Middle School student.

“If you’re making something out of recycling, it will be interesting,” she said.

The fashion show, organized and hosted by the Manatee County Public Library System, is a competition for teenagers. The challenge is to create an article of clothing from recycled goods, and model it for a panel of judges Saturday, April 16 at the Manatee Central Library.

Popular choices involve plastic grocery bags and newspaper. During the 2015 competition, one girl made a dress entirely from used Starbucks cups.

The show was a brainchild of Braden River Branch youth librarian Chris Culp. The show is now rounding its third year, and has grown

Olivia Lake of Manatee High School won the 2015 fashion show with her garbage bag, porch screen and paint bucket dress that was inspired by Morticia Addams of the Addams Family.

each year since.

The first year, the contest had about 15 participants, all girls. This year, about 35 girls have signed up for the show.

Culp has a team of other branch staff members helping her with the show, and she has more volunteers to work the event than ever before.

The event’s judges hail from different fields: Arnold Desmarais, a Melbourne artist and jewelry designer; Joe Loccisano, curator and gallery manager for State College of Florida; Georgina Willmott, Manatee Players assistant costume designer; Cheri Coryea, director of neighborhood services for Manatee County; and new this year, Jackie Einwaechter, community marketing supervisor for Bright House Network in Sarasota.

The show will have live music and Mary Kay representatives will be doing hair and makeup for the models for free.

Culp’s fashion show received a state spotlight this year when the Florida Library Association awarded the show with the Betty Davis Miller Youth Services Award. The entire library system also won Library of the Year from the association.

Lily Potter first ventured into fashion and design competitions in 2014 when she transformed this dress to fit her older sister, Cypress, for Cinderella Project Runway. Courtesy photo.

The judges award first, second and third places to the best entries.

Potter first learned about the contest after seeing a flyer for it a few months ago while checking out a book from the library for a project. As a budding fashion designer, she said she thought it would be cool to make something from recycling. She’s working on an outfit made from plastic bags.

“I liked that I could create something without a (specific) pattern,” she said.