This year's Trash to Fashion designer John Parker, famous for his pared-back elegant ceramics and set design, has ditched the catwalk and reinvented a whole new architectural design concept for the event at Waitakere City's newest venue The Trusts Stadium in Henderson.

This year's Trash to Fashion designer John Parker, famous for his pared-back elegant ceramics and set design, has ditched the catwalk and reinvented a whole new architectural design concept for the event at Waitakere City's newest venue The Trusts Stadium in Henderson. Over 200 selected costumes from around New Zealand constructed out of recycled or organic material will feature at The Trusts Trash to Fashion ® Awards on 3rd and 4th December .  

Image: Crimplene Creation by Rita Hague - a little taste of what is becoming a very big event.

Project Director Amanda Wright says the 3000-seat venue offers not only great sightlines for the audience, but also the opportunity to create a different style of entertainment to suit the larger space. " There's not a catwalk in sight. For a space this size we've come up with simple but striking architectural solutions to frame the show's many ingredients from the multimedia to the choreography, " she says. "The end result will be a feast for the senses in keeping with the visual spectacle Trash to Fashion ® audiences look forward to." The Awards focus on costume art, body sculpture and fashion but the designers must use only recycled or organic material.

Now in its ninth year, the event promotes the 'reduce reuse recycle' message via a professionally produced arts experience that celebrates the designers' ability to create the unexpected from the discarded.

Starring alongside the costumes is an impressive line-up of guest entertainers and artists: multi-talented actors Madeleine Sami, Justine Smith and Margaret-Mary Hollins; the gravity-defying Extreme Trampolinists; the energetic Taiko Drummers, world-class oboist Russell Walder, the Vivid performance art troupe and light installations by illumination artist Peter Stoneham.

The designers compete across eight categories for a range of cash prizes. Responsible for selecting category winners and the overall Supreme Award Winner are: fashion designers Adrian Hailwood and Kylee Davis (Insidious Fix), artist Judy Darragh, multi-media artist Lisa Reihana and Neil Ieremia from Black Grace dance troupe.