The Green Team's Textile Fashion Show: One Student's Extravagant Dream That Became Reality

The Shore Green Team’s extravagant Textile Fashion Show was a wonderful success! The Green Team has been doing great work surrounding sustainability and support of our environment for fifteen years now, and this year’s fashion show was another example of the positive impact that their hard work can bring to campus. Through careful planning, Green Team leader and World Language Teacher Doug Lucey and his team of dedicated students were not only able to put together a fantastic mash-up of themed outfits using various textile products that otherwise would have gone to waste, but was also able to source a number of talented models from Shore’s faculty and staff who strutted down the red carpet in style. From mysterious cape-wearing magicians, to rugged paintbrush-holding construction workers, to silly animals and regal royalty, the Textile Fashion Show had it all, and it was a spectacle that was enjoyed by the Upper School audience as they cheered on their favorite models and costumes. The creativity required in putting together so many unique outfits and the grandeur of the event itself speak to the Green Team’s dedication to bringing these themes to the forefront of our community’s minds in a time when the Earth needs us more than ever.

Textile recycling is the process of recovering fiber, yarn, or fabric, and reprocessing the material into new, useful products. Textile waste gets split into pre-consumer and post-consumer waste, then sorted into five different groups. Shore has a bin on campus that collects textiles for donation, located to the left side of the Winslow Building. In the months surrounding the fashion show, these donations tripled, emphasizing the Green Team’s impact. Textile recycling decreases the total amount of waste headed for landfills by reducing the amount of textiles to be thrown out, and also bears importance to other Green Team initiatives, as the entire process uses less water than is required for a year’s washes of a single T-shirt. Shore partners with Bay State Textiles to keep as many discarded items as possible out of landfills. Clothes, towels, sheets, socks, and even stuffed animals are all perfect items to donate as the Green Team seeks to make a difference in the way our community thinks about and disposes of old clothes and other items.

Through this fun event, the Green Team was able to engage the audience with humor that aided in getting the real point across. The effort put forth in organizing such a memorable and engaging performance with an underlying deeper message of positivity towards our planet emphasized Shore’s dedication to fostering students who are not only academically adept but truly care for their community and are passionate about doing good for the world around them. “It took us two months to put together all the outfits, and with only forty minutes a week to work on them we had to switch a few things around and make lots of changes,” said Stella B., who came up with the original idea for a fashion show, “But it’s like Nike, we just did it! As part of the Green Team, you can have all sorts of crazy ideas and they’ll turn into something real. If you think you’re dreaming big, go even bigger.” Rita R. credited Mr. Lucey with helping make the team’s ideas into reality, saying that “Even if your ideas don’t work out, everything will be listened to and considered, and Mr. Lucey is a great listener.” The amazing work these students are doing for their community with the help of talented educators is just another great example of how the good grows at Shore.