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Nancy Judd :
The Art of Green Couture
Above -
Junk Mail Fan Dress - Colorful junk mail (catalogues,
solicitations, newspaper ads) were folded into fans and
sewn onto a skirt and dress made of scrap canvas and a
mantilla for the hair. The vintage shoes are covered
with old postage stamps. The inspiration for this outfit
came from the origami peacock earrings- Nancy Judd made
them in 1988 when she designed and sold origami jewelry
for a summer job. Photo by Sandrine Hahn
Artist Nancy Judd
transforms trash into elegant couture fashions and
showcases the Recycle Runway Collection in airport
exhibitions, class rooms and media outlets around the
nation. Her unique work inspires environmental
stewardship in millions of people internationally!
Recycle Runway strives to change the way the people live
on the earth through innovative environmental
educational programs and couture fashions made from
trash. The Recycle Runway fashions are exhibited in
high-traffic airports to grab travelers’ attention and
inspire personal action. Community-based presentations
and workshops launch young peoples' imaginations while
providing information on how to conserve resources.
Recycle Runway partners with businesses, non-profits,
governmental agencies, foundations and individuals who
actively support environmental conservation.
Encouraging people to reflect upon their personal
environmental impact and take action to reduce their
carbon footprint is the heart of Nancy Judd’s mission
for Recycle Runway. Ms. Judd strives to live her life
and run her business on these principles. She believes
that it is the culmination of our individual actions
that created the environmental crisis we now face, and
that the solution lies in our personal daily choices at
home and work. She hopes to inspire people in a fun,
creative and positive way to change the decisions we
make around food, consumption, transportation, recycling
and reuse.
The Recycle Runway Collection: Global corporations
including Toyota, Coca-Cola, Target, Novelis Recycling
and the Glass Packaging Institute, have sponsored
Recycle Runway garments over the last 10 years. Each
garment is a one-of-a-kind piece of wearable art that
takes between 100 to 450 hours to create. Nancy Judd’s
goal is to design all of her garments to last at least
100 years, thus inspiring generations of people to
reduce their environmental impact.
The Airport Project: The intent of the Airport Project
is to exhibit the Recycle Runway Collection in glass
cases in airports around the world, encouraging millions
of people to reflect upon sustainability issues in a
creative, fun, and eye-catching venue. The Recycle
Runway exhibit also showcases organizations that are
helping to find solutions to the sustainability issues
facing our planet. Following is the Recycle Runway
Airport Exhibit schedule for 2010:
• Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Feb 2010-Aug
2010
• Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Exhibit, Nov 2010-Oct 2011
Youth Education: Working with youth is at the core of
the Recycle Runway mission. Nancy Judd gives
presentations and workshops to young people across the
country using her couture recycled garments to capture
the kids' imaginations. She also invites the children to
make a new garment with her! The Youth Eco-Dress will be
created from environmental pledges, made by the
children, on strips of recycled paper turned into
paper-link-chains and attached to a Scarlett O'Hara
style dress. It will be completed in time for the
Atlanta Airport Exhibit and seen by over 13 million
people!
Ms. Judd offers workshops and presentations to adult
audiences as well as youth.
Background on Nancy Judd: In 1998, while working as the
Recycling Coordinator for the City of Santa Fe, Ms. Judd
helped to found an annual event called the Recycle Santa
Fe Market. The weekend long recycled art market and
exhibit begins with a trash fashion contest. Ms. Judd
began making recycled garments to promote the contest
and soon had an impressive collection of recycled
outfits. The National Recycling Coalition invited her to
put on a recycled fashion show at their annual
conference in 2003 and soon she was booked all over the
country.
In 2000 Ms. Judd left her job at the city, started a
consulting business, and served as the Executive
Director of the New Mexico Recycling Coalition through
2005.
During this time Nancy Judd traveled through the US
giving over 30 recycled fashion shows and youth
presentations.
Aluminum Drop Dress -
Post-consumer aluminum cans were
hand cut into teardrops and circles and hand
sewn onto a
1920s flapper dress made from an old cloth
shower curtain.
Commissioned by Novelis Recycling. Photo by Eric
Swanson |
Plastique Couture- The
dress is made from a fabric called Eco-spun
which is woven from melted plastic bottles. It
is covered with plastic
packaging film and accented by little circles
cut from plastic detergent
bottles. The stole is knit from clear plastic
bags that are pulled through
to create a soft luxurious faux fur and is lined
with a white polyester
satin prom dress from a thrift store. Photo by
Sandrine Hahn
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In 2006 Ms Judd decided to turn all of her attention to
her recycled fashion project fulltime. She renamed the
business Recycle Runway and realized that exhibitions in
airports would give her a larger audience for her
message of environmental stewardship.
Ms. Judd grew up in Portland Oregon and received her BA
from Pitzer College (Claremont, California) in Art and
Sociology. She spent time at the Laguna Beach Art
Institute and the University of Georgia’s art program in
Cortona, Italy. A self-taught seamstress, Nancy Judd has
been sewing, designing clothing and jewelry and making
art since she was a child.
She began her career in the recycling field immediately
after she graduated in 1990 by developing a recycling
program for Pitzer College. She completed a Solid Waste
Certification Program at the University of Los Angeles,
California while serving as recycling coordinator for
the Los Angeles Conservation Corps. In 1995 she moved to
Santa Fe, New Mexico to work as waste
reduction/recycling coordinator for the City of Santa
Fe. In 2000 she became the executive director of the New
Mexico Recycling Coalition and in 2006 formalized
Recycle Runway into a full time business venture.
For more information please visit
www.recyclerunway.com
| Editor's Note: Ms. Judd is likely one of the
most talented people in today's world. I
highly encourage you to visit her website, learn
about her methods and explore the photos
available showcasing her talent. I know
that you will be as impressed as I was for she
is truly an artistic midwife with the ability to
birth into being that which is born only
of the creative spirit. |
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