Springs Preserve benefit guests say yes to (recycled) dress

Fashions made of everything from trash bags to bubble wrap highlighted the annual “green” fashion show to benefit the Springs Preserve Foundation.

Guests posed for photos in front of the Springs Preserve custom canvas before dining on appetizers. Among the items were tomato relish with Tuscan herbs on toasted ciabatta crostini, smoked chipotle chicken salad on corn tortilla crisps, roasted red pepper relish on pesto hummus crostini, and turkey Swedish meatballs.

Denise Valdez of KLAS-TV, Channel 8, was the show’s mistress of ceremonies.

Guests included Josef Vann, Andrea Bennett, Be-Be Adams, Julie Wilcox, Rose McKinney-James, Sean Gamble, Melissa Warren, Jennifer Simich, Suzie Lederer, Helen Foley and Fred Mosseler.

“I came because I support Jenna Morton in everything she does,” Zakeisha Steele Jones, the Alexander Dawson School’s head of special projects, said of Morton, president of the Springs Preserve Foundation.

Steele added that she loves fashion and wants to figure out how to shop “more green.”

That’s exactly what the fashion show represented. Las Vegas designers included: Crystal Ball, who designed free-flowing, free-style fashions with no darts and no buttons; Ciara Laidler, Dayana Rueda and students from the Art Institute of Las Vegas, who made sustainable fashions from newspapers, magazines, bottle tops, trash bags, Saran wrap, foil, paper cups, bubble wrap, toilet tissue, videocassettes and more.

Memorable fashions included a wedding gown made from toilet tissue by Amy Vaughn of the Art Institute of Las Vegas. Red-and-black Spanish tango dresses were made from trash bags, plastic gloves and other household items by Maria Gonzalez for her daughters. She said she got the idea when her house burned down a year ago after looking at trash bags piled up.

“This is so exciting,” Morton said. “We have designers that have created sustainable fashions and this fits with our mission.

“It’s connected because sustainability is represented in our 180 acres here,” she added, noting that 70 percent of the preserve’s energy comes from solar energy. The preserve also has water-smart landscaping and a solar home designed by University of Nevada, Las Vegas students.

Other guests were: Bob Margison, Jennifer Margison, Keith Glynn, Crystal Ghanem, Jacqueline Lee, Phil Peckman and Springs Preserve board members Anne Mazzola, Ray Rawson, Liz Sorokac and Ed Cecchi.

The Springs Preserve also has hiking and biking trails, nature exhibits, a botanical garden, animal programs and a museum.

Sponsors for the sustainable fashion show included Vegas Magazine, Stoli, Anne Mazzola, Voss, Whole Foods Markets, Sprinkles Cupcakes and Tommy Hilfiger.

Runway show producer was Andres Gonzalez of Fashion for a Cause.