Twenty-four garments created by ISU students were on display Friday at the Serenity Couture Salon in Ames to increase awareness for environmental issues and raise money for the Aveda salon’s water conservation movement.

Students in the creative thinking and problem solving class were responsible for researching, conceptualizing, creating and showing garments that reflect pressing environmental issues currently occurring in our society.

The project the students executed has been implemented for several years, but it only recently began taking place at the Serenity Couture Salon in the North Grand Mall.

Salon manager Cassie Bexten, graduated from the College of Human Sciences at Iowa State. She took the creative thinking and problem solving course, and Sara Marcketti was her instructor.

The way students interpreted the facts and conveyed them through the construction of the garments made the show a success.

Several garments focused on the recycling of plastic and paper. One group based its look off of the waste of Starbucks cups.

The group members were able to construct a one-of-a-kind dress that walked elegantly down the runway. The construction included a corset-like top that fit over the full skirt, which was made entirely from cups. The look also featured detailing at the hem of the dress, which was accomplished by attaching the cup lids to the skirt.

“The project was fairly simple once you knew what issue you were going to focus on,” said Seth Dickinson, junior in apparel, merchandising and design. “Constructing our garment was the easiest part and only took one night to complete. This garment was created to bring awareness to paper waste, specifically focusing on the use of phone books.

“The hardest part about creating our garment was coming up with our materials.”

Bailee Person, junior in event management, said her group focused on the issue of plastic pollution in various water sources.

Several of the materials featured in the look included plastic straws, water bottles and plastic bags. The group then related the plastic pollution to be water specific by incorporating rain boots and an umbrella. Person said the group chose this environmental issued because “the average straw takes about 200 years to decompose, and that was just one the facts we found that really stuck out to us, and we wanted to focus it back to Aveda’s water conservation movement.”

“The show itself is my favorite part of the project,” said Elena Karpova, instructor of the creative thinking and problem solving course. “I love getting to see all of my students’ hard work, as well as my students dressed up for the occasion.”

The garments were scored by a panel of judges that included Amy Abrams, owner of the Loft in Ames, Alison Cowling, CEO of Serenity Couture Salon and Marcketti, associate director of apparel, events and hospitality management. The judges were responsible for choosing the top garment for three categories: Most Impactful, Most Couture Construction and Best in Show.

Hallie Erdahl, sophomore in apparel, merchandising and design who constructed and modeled a two-piece look based on the toxicity of paraffin wax used to make crayons, won the Most Impactful award. Erdahl hot glued crayons in an intricate and eye-catching arrangement to the underlying material for the look.

Sydney Esary, Claire Ricketts and Tanna Schill created an ensemble made completely out of Jimmy John’s wrappers and featured a sandwich on the runway. The trio won the Most Couture Construction award. Their “freaky fast” look left the crowd wanting more. 

Taylor Heying, Katie Jongewaard and Anne Dieseth won the Best in Show award. The group created a dress that emphasized aluminum waste and bauxite mining. The look was made primarily using Diet Coke cans, pop tabs and aluminum foil. This group took it up a notch by creating a necklace from pop tabs and incorporated the theme into the models’ makeup.