Living
Archives
| Arts & Entertainment
| Audio/Video
| Business
| Classifieds
| Columns
| Food
| Forums
| Health & Fitness
| News
| Obits
| Opinions
| People
| Politics
| Science/Technology
| Search
| Sports
| Subscribe
| Travel
| Weather
Published
by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. CLICK FOR NEWSPAPER DELIVERY
Sunday, September 9, 2001
Throwaway fashion
This designer creates clothes from Lotto tickets, bus passes; she prefers stripes over florals
|
|
David Adame/Caller-Times
|
|
Rainbo says her fashion wish list includes a pair of hip huggers and bell-botton jeans.
|
Rainbo Klein, 36, is a Flour Bluff substitute teacher who also teaches sewing at Del Mar College. Klein graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in San Francisco in 1994. She has designed costumes for the Harbor Playhouse’s “Rocky Horror Show.” She creates wearable fashion from recyclable items.
Q: What types of recyclable items do you make fashions from?
A: Candy wrappers, old pictures, sample fabrics, scrap trim, Lotto tickets, tags, glitter and even bus passes.
|
|
David Adame/Caller-Times
|
|
Rainbo Klein, 36, creates wearable art from trash. 'It takes a lot of trash to make this collection,' she says.
|
Q: What’s your favorite item in your closet?
A: The Rocky vest I made for “The Rocky Horror Show” is the one I’m obsessed with right now. I don’t leave the house without it.
Q: What’s your best clothing bargain?
A: I bought a pair of plastic shoes in San Francisco at an outlet for $5. They were regularly about $45. They’re clear plastic with shiny patent leather orange with matching laces. The sole glows in the dark. They look like Ronald McDonald shoes.
Q: What would be your ultimate fashion accessory?
A: A big old diamond ring with colored stones. I’d like something just as unique as I am. Something with a mix of metals.
Q: Favorite shopping haunt:
A: Britex Fabrics in San Francisco. There’s no other place like it. It’s four stories of nothing but fabric. The top floor was just of notions such as buttons, feathers, shoulder pads, etc. It was right around the corner from my design school.
Q: Fashion advice to women:
A: No bra straps or panty lines should be showing. That’s just gross. If your pockets are bulging, it doesn’t fit. There should be some wearing ease.
Q: What’s on your fashion wish list?
A: A pair of hip huggers, not dark indigo, nor too faded either. Also some bell-bottom jeans decorated with some sort of beads. If I’m gonna buy something like that, it needs beading and embroidery. It needs personality.
Q: You couldn’t pay me $1,000 to wear…
A: … floral prints. Nine times out of 10, those prints are too cheesy, too Patty Duke. I prefer abstracts, stripes and cool weaves.
Q: What designers do you admire?
A: Anne Klein for her use of better silk and knit fabrics. Jean Paul Gaultier, who I consider to be really cutting edge. Betsey Johnson is my kind of girl; she’s got bright colors and flair.
Q: Any celebrities that you would like to design something for?
A: I’d like to make a bustier for Madonna and a trench coat for Howard Stern. I’d have to call Madonna and get her to send some of her personal trash. For Howard, I’d used dark-colored fabric scraps and even add some Bible scripture in there for him.
Q: How do you pick the trash for your creations?
A: I have to coordinate my trash by small, medium, large and extra-large pieces. Also by clear pieces, primary colors, rainbows, holographic and more. It takes a lot of trash to make this collection.
Q: Name three items that every woman should own.
A: A black simple dress and a string of pearls. My black dress is decorated with black sequins. Also a tiara, if you’re a princess like me.
—Staff writer Cassandra Hinojosa
| Talk
about this story | Next Story
| Home |
© 2000,
a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.
|
 |
 |
|
