Announcing the Ethical Fashion Show

My name is Katherine (Kasia) Metkowski. I am a high-school junior from Alameda and I plan on making the world a better place through my first contest, the Ethical Fashion Show.  The Ethical Fashion Show is a fun competition that aims to promote consumer awareness and second-hand shopping among teens through their own creativity. It is a design competition; in it, contestants will create high-fashion outfits using only clothing purchased at thrift stores. More information about the rules is here: ow.ly/ieukp

To introduce myself, I never thought of myself as a recycling fanatic; I just loved shopping. I would turn to thrift shops because in addition to being green, they were the places to find one-of-a-kind items for very low prices. However, whenever I would talk about thrift-shopping to my friends, they would always make faces and say that thrift-shopping was gross. I wanted to change their attitudes and I thought of the competition soon after.

When I decided to take on the competition in December, I expected it to be small. However, when I spoke to the Girls Inc. teen director, Diana Cristales, she put me in contact with Miss Alameda, a passionate recycler. Because of her and her negotiating skills, we are going to get a bigger venue and we got some really cool judges, such as Christopher Collins who has been on the TV show Project Runway.

Tickets will be available soon for sale; proceeds from the sales will be donated to organizations such as Girls Incorporated of the Island City.

My hopes for this competition is that its message spreads beyond my hometown of Alameda. I want this competition to get people to think more about how their purchases are produced and where, and how they can change the world just by being a more aware.

I want to change the culture among my peers to get them to care and to show them, as well, that they can look great while doing so.

You can follow us on Twitter: @AlamedaEthical.