Permian Basin Recycle Fashion Show to take place

Oct. 20—This week, designers from all over the area will show off their fashion skills as models will take the runway clad in dresses made from recyclable materials in the annual Permian Basin Recycle Fashion Show.

The event is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday at the Odessa Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.

This will be the seventh year for the event put on by Keep Odessa Beautiful.

"We're very excited," Executive Director of Keep Odessa Beautiful Claudia Ortega said. "We're very thrilled. We have 31 designers this year and 32 designs. We can't wait to see what they come up with this year. It's always something different. I always think I've seen it all but then the year comes and something new comes along and I'm surprised."

Each year, the designers bring different looks and styles to the recycle fashion show. The message of the show remains the same about the importance of reusing materials and saving the environment.

The designers have a list of criteria they have to meet.

The main thing is that at least 50 percent of the outfits have to be made of recycled materials.

"Of course, it can be more," Ortega said. "But it's a minimum of 50 percent. So what they do is they create a design out of those materials and they model it. The important thing is to raise awareness of the importance of reducing waste in our community."

Some examples include plastic bags, bottles, soda cans or caps, water bottles and newspapers.

"They even use the plastic medicine bottles as well as cardboard," Ortega said. "Anything you can think of. Even ties. They've used those to make a skirt before."

This year's theme is "Denim and Diamonds."

Last year, about $17,000 was raised from the fashion show and Ortega is hopeful that they'll raise twice as much this year.

The event has grown over the years, being originally held at the Ector County Coliseum in its early years.

"From there, we made it our signature fundraiser and moved it to the Copper Rose building," Ortega said. "We had it there for three years. But then, it got so big because we had so many participants so we moved it to the Marriott."

Last year's event was not held in person due to the pandemic so it was recorded instead.

This year's event returns to an in-person setting.

"We recorded the actual show to keep everyone safe," Ortega said of last year's show. "But it has grown so much that we had to move it out of those places. We saw how people responded. It's fun to see the talent we have in our community and when you talk to those participants, they're motivation behind it is amazing. It's good to hear their stories and motivations behind doing this event."

One of the fashion designers that takes part in the Recycle Fashion Show each year is Alivia Benavidez and her family.

Benavidez has been involved with the show for about five years now. "It's just a really fun thing to do with the family," Benavidez said. "We like making and designing the dresses and reusing stuff. I love watching how the other people design stuff and create new things with recycled stuff."

Helping her each year is her mother Kelly Benavidez and sister ReeAnn Benavidez.

"Last year's design... we used a lot of plastic products on the dress," Alivia said. "We kind of made it look like a rainbow to make a 'love is love' theme and to reuse and recycle all the plastic in the ocean. All the McDonald's toys and all the plastic toys that you can find that people throw away, there's so much of it. We just glued so much of it onto the dress. It also included plastic tide bottles, soap bottles and shampoo bottles."

While Alivia didn't want to give anything away about this year's design, she said the message remains the same.

"This year, we want to spread awareness of how important it is to reuse things as well," Alivia said. "Reusing things is something that should come before recycling. It's using earth's valuable resources to recycle things and I want people to know that it's fine to shop at thrift stores and create their own costumes for Halloween."

For more information about the event, go to tinyurl.com/ye2765w7.

If you go

— What: Permian Basin Recycle Fashion Show.

— When: 6 p.m. Oct. 21.

— Where: Odessa Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.

— Where to purchase tickets: tinyurl.com/ye2765w7