About the project Out of Garbage – Waste to Dress

The one world foundation runs the “Bogenvillya”, an Ayurveda resort where guests are lovingly pampered. What is special about the Bogenvillya is that it is a place of encounters. Our guests meet artists, writers and volunteers who teach in the school. The mostly young volunteers report regularly from the school and are like ambassadors of the one world foundation college in the guest house. Bettina, Steffen and Marija – the Waste to Dress team – were also ambassadors on several levels. Through their daily work with the teachers and women in the school, they brought issues such as pollution, the throwaway society and design to the Bogenvillya. Those of our guests who wanted to could participate in the fashion show or just be a spectator.

The blue trailing dress made of ghost nets, which cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of marine animals every year, especially turtles and fish, as they die from the plastic in the nets, looked like a memorial at the beginning of the show. It was spectacular to see how beautifully harmonious dresses made of natural materials such as leaves, branches and wickerwork were presented by the wearers.

The project Out of Garbage – Waste to Dress was important in many ways and a great enrichment for the one world foundation.

Xiane Kangela, one world foundation

Note of thanks

Since 20 years I have been organizing intercultural projects between designers around the globe, but the experience I had with “Out of Garbage / Waste to Dress” was indeed very special for me. I came for the first time in a position to “teach” and share my design experience with women who were actually educated in tailoring. My interest was to show them a way to go beyond that and to help them to develop their skills and self confidence in designing clothes. It was a challenge for me, despite the problem of speaking different languages, to find a way to connect with the women and motivate them to explore their own creativity. It was not so easy to work with a material that is garbage from our throw-away culture and ends up on the beaches of a culture that still works with many natural material and a traditional attitude to multiuse objects.

First of all, I would like to thank Kathrin Messner most warmly for welcoming this project in her institution, which is really an open place for creativity and the coming together of people with different roots and life worlds. It is not only a school project with meanwhile 1300 pupils and students, completely funded by a small Ayurveda Resort and private sponsors, but also a place of learning and experience for cultural exchange for everybody who just shares time and place at the one world foundation. And many things work here, because it is a place of trust, and carefullness.

The more I get into the center of such projects, the more I realise how important it is for the global development of humanity to understand each other, learn from each other and find solutions to overcome historical patterns and develop towards a respectful encounter at eye-level between all cultures. In this context, I would like to thank the teachers Sureka Perera, Porawagoda Nishanti De Silva and Wanigamuni Anoma Malkanthi Mendis for their sincere interest in this cooperation and their enormous creative input. I would like to thank the women’s group for embarking on the adventure of engaging in this collaborative process and opening up more and more to my thoughts. They can be really proud of their work and I hope they will find their way to use their creativity for a successful future.

I would like to thank Mr. Prabath Wijesekara, the principal of the one world foundation college, his assistants Sachini Nilashika and Sampath Wijerathna and many other helping hands in the teaching team for their contribution and patience at a time when they had to organise a big event after a break of three years due to Corona.

I would like to thank Irma Denk, who brought me into contact with the one world foundation through a holiday and started the workshop project in 2020 with me. Without the collaboration with Steffen Pirkl and his enormous artistic handicraft knowledge the costumes would not have the quality they have achieved. Marija Kanižaj is a great photographer and it was an honour for me that she was interested in accompanying me on this journey and doing a reportage. Through her camera eye, she gave us all the opportunity to experience the encounter and make it unforgettable.

I would like to thank Xiane Kangela and Kaspar Mühlemann Hartl from the one world foundation for their support of the project and for spreading the information via social media and the blog. I would also like to mention Sasindu Pramuditha, teacher of the photography class, who did a photo shoot with us in 2020 and Methuli, the daughter of Mr. Wijesekara, who was our model back then. I would like to thank Mrs Raji de Silva, the manager of the Bogenvillya and her crew, who always supported us when we needed them, and also Mukadanwasam Prasantha, our tuc-tuc driver who took us to the best shops and places in the area. Traudi Messini from the circle of guests at the Bogenvillya I would like to thank for her support in developing a choreography for the show and for her contribution to the blog. Many thanks also to Elisabeth Menasse, Birgid Uccia, Peter Klein and Susanna Maslankowski who were guests on site during the workshops and also contributed wonderful statements. I would like to thank Susanna’s family, Rainer Käse and son Matteo for helping me to bring the collection home so that I can also present it in Graz.

Such a project would be much more difficult to realise without the support of sponsors. At this point I would like to thank the fashion company Akris Switzerland, the embassies of Austria and Sri Lanka, the Austrian Fashion Association, the Austrian Ministry of Art, Culture, Public Service and Sports and the City of Graz / Department Unesco City of Design.

Explore its philosophy and visit the one world foundation in Sri Lanka! It is still one of the cleanest beaches I know. Certainly, it is also the beauty of this place and the heartbreaking kindness of the people there that make me want to contribute more and more to the protection of planet Earth.

Bettina Reichl, designer and workshop leader

The 29th of December last year was a most remarkable day for all of us. The Waste to Dress fashion show held that day gave us lots of experience and fun. We must appreciate the kindness, unity and support from the fashion designers Ms. Bettina Reichl, Ms. Marija Kanižaj, Mr. Steffen Pirkl, the one world foundation directors and the principal, the college staff and our sisters. On that day we felt so happy! We are truly grateful for having had such a precious experience in our lives.
W. Shani Dilhari De Silva, H. Dilukshi, from the students of Knitting Class of the Women’s Cooperation

The Waste to Dress fashion show, which took place on 29 December 2022, was the greatest experience of my life. The foreign fashion designers taught us how to use waste materials and create new fashion from them. It was very fortunate that I was able to participate in this event as a teacher. I would like to thank all the designers, the one world foundation directors, our principal, all the staff members and all the beloved students who supported me to gain such a great experience that enriches my life.
Mrs. Nishanthi De Silva, Instructor of the Knitting Unit of the Women’s Cooperation

The fashion show held at one world foundation on 29 December last year using waste materials was a new experience for me. I really appreciate all the new fashion designs and I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the success of this event from the bottom of my heart. I wish we could experience more events like this again and again.
K. Mala Priyanthi De Silva from the Knitting Class of the Women’s Cooperation

The 29th of December last year was an unforgettable, memorable and funny experience for me. I would like to thank Mrs Bettina Reichl, Mrs Marija Kanižaj, Mr Steffen Pirkl, who came to create the fashion show with us, our principal for giving permission and the teachers who contributed a lot to the success of the event.
R. Chathurangi Shashikala from the Sewing Class of the Women’s Cooperation

The fashion show which was held on 29th December 2022 was a very special, fun experience for me. I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to our principal for allowing us to have this event. I would also like to thank the foreign fashion designers who shared their knowledge with us and all the teachers and sisters who participated.
Kasuni Nisansala from the Sewing Class of the Women’s Cooperation

Statement on the fashion show

We arrived at the Bogenvilla towards the end of the creative process. Just in time for the ‘climax’ of the fashion show, so to say.

We set off that day without much expectations, intrigued more by the social commitment than a high profile fashion show. But as soon as I saw the first dresses displayed by the models involved, I knew that Bettina and her team had created some really great work.

What was on show there on stage deserves all my respect. It must have been an strenuous process to achieve such enchanting creations. One could tell the permeation of a remarkably consistent design approach throughout. In their own way, the garments are marvellously imperfect and yet perfect at the same time. So you don’t just see a simple train, but a train that can hardly be improved.

I found it quite significant when some people I showed my favourite clothes asked me if one could buy them because they looked so wearable. The astonishment was great when I then told them that they were all made from plastic waste with cable ties.

I trust the women involved gained a lot from working with Bettina and her team and that the inspiration will encourage them on their own creative path.

Susanna Maslankowski, architect

Out of Garbage: Waste to Dress

The dashing creative team arrived at the Bogenvillya in Ahungalla with an uncompromising concept: Bettina, the ambitious designer; Steffen, the most creative assistant ever; and Marija, the inspired photographer. All three immediately cast a spell over the few of us already at the resort since before Christmas. From then on, the happiest evenings together were all about refuse, trash littering the beaches and not knowing how to deal with it. The crucial point of the whole enterprise – as great as we thought the idea of making a collection for a fashion show out of all these things – was the cultural clash between Sri Lanka and Europe. What we Europeans thought awesome, the women of the One World Foundation’s Women’s Cooperation initially found to be most disconcerting. “Waste belongs in the bin and not in the wardrobe and certainly not on the catwalk.” Our creative team had three weeks to work with the women on the “Out of Garbage: Waste to Dress” concept. That meant: first collect the garbage and then design garments with it, all together. Even today, I still can’t explain how they managed to create more than thirty dresses and then even send them onto the catwalk by the women themselves.

There were tears and misunderstandings in abundance. At first the women didn’t even want to work with all this refuse. Then they didn’t want to wear the clothes and, furthermore, their dress codes also restricted them: naked shoulders, for example, was an absolute no-go. But, despite all the resistance, the fashion show was an enormous success. A little carried away by the international guests, perhaps, the young women and their garbage dresses were also rewarded with great applause from the local audience. Even we die-hards were excited about what our creative team had conjured up: a coconut sleeping mat turned into a great cape, a crown was made from a broken basket that we’d picked up somewhere. A metallic jacket, created out of aluminium mesh, was studded with flattened beverage cans. Colourful crown caps went into a festive minidress, plastic one way gloves convincingly adorned an evening dress with a long train, a fallen, already grey palm leaf functioned as adornment for a simple black dress. A crocheted overdress was made from coconut rope, a sweeping couture skirt was made from fallen bamboo bark, shimmering yellowish-brown mudilla tree leaves turned into a ruff. A frayed old fishing net became a mermaid dress including all the plastic fragments from the ocean still caught up in it. Pure sensuality from things found. Garbage can do so much more!

Traudi Messini, TV producer

The Out of Garbage Fashion Project
“Fashion is that,” Oscar Wilde once said, “whereby the fantastic becomes general for a moment.” The English eccentric would certainly have liked the Out of Garbage Fashion project. He loved it when things are taken to extremes, when phenomena gain contour and recognisability through exaggeration. We all know that our oceans – and not only these! – have become the world’s biggest rubbish dump. We know that millions of tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans, decompose there and threaten flora and fauna. We know it ad nauseam, we have become accustomed to it.

The special feature of the Out of Garbage project by Bettina Reichl and her team is undoubtedly that it confronts the sad topic with wit and humour. Raised forefingers rarely have an effect. Successful artistic interventions, on the other hand, do. The idea of making rubbish fashionable is as sly as it is coolly calculated. The gain in insight arises from the interweaving of two areas that, on the surface, seem to be far apart: Here fashion, there rubbish. Here the beautiful appearance, there the filth of civilisation. The fact that beauty is inherent in ugliness only becomes apparent through the artist’s arrangements. Never before has rubbish been seen as beguiling, as extravagant as in the final fashion show of the Out of Garbage Fashion Project. “Fashion”, to quote Oscar Wilde once again, “is that brief period of time when the utterly insane can be considered normal”. A real pity that Mister Wilde could not be there. The models with their dresses made of crushed aluminium cans, crown corks knocked flat, disposable gloves and worn-out fishing nets would certainly have amused him.

Peter Klein, publicist