10 Years of ReFashion: Inspiration, Invitation, Creation
Craft can be a tool for change—one stitch, garment, and reclaimed material at a time. Artists who work with repurposed materials understand this firsthand, and a panel of sustainable artists and community leaders will gather at BIMA on April 12 to discuss how making can contribute to a more thoughtful future.
Panelists, who are all involved with the upcoming ReFashion Show, will share the history of this show, their creative processes, the environmental urgency behind textile waste, and how refashioning opens up new pathways for expression, community connection, and sustainable futures. Plus, in honor of Handwork 2026, we will examine how handwork, repurposing, and resourcefulness shape the ReFashion Show, now in its 10th year, and the broader story of craft today.
Event partners:
Refashion Bainbridge
JeLisa Marshall, ReMake Seattle
JeLisa Marshall is a fashion practioner, researcher, and writer based in Seattle. She has over 10 years of experience in advocacy, marketing, and product development. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Sustainability Education, with a focus on the intersection of culture and ecology to implement more regenerative practices in design.
Gabriel Bello Diaz (past judge, judge for this year’s ReFashion Bainbridge Show)
Gabriel-Bello Diaz is a Puerto Rican artist, designer and instructor. He combines 3D printing and laser cut technology with leather to create custom products for clients including: accessories, jewelry, bags and various garments. He has curated half a dozen fashion shows focused on using fashion as an artform to express a deeper dialogue. Ancestral Future was his proudest fashion vision of highlighting indigenous and ancestral traditions of textiles and symbols through digital fabrication to help hidden stories of our community emerge. Currently at the Actualize Residency in Pioneer Sq, he is continuing to experiment and building his first public exhibition at King Street Station opening June 2026.
Naomi Spinak, ReFashion Bainbridge (facilitator)
Naomi Spinak is the head of ReFashion Bainbridge, a program of Sustainable Bainbridge. With a professional background in theatrical costume design and upcycled apparel, Naomi has spent her career championing the "reuse world." Under her leadership, the Bainbridge Trashion Show evolved into the comprehensive ReFashion program, which was awarded a 2022 COBI Cultural Arts Funding Grant to expand textile education and environmental programming on the island. Also an award-winning artist, Naomi’s repurposed and activist artwork has been exhibited nationwide. She is currently serving on the WA Department of Ecology’s Workgroup to plan a Textile-Focused Symposium on Waste Management.
Lara Hansen, Sustainable Bainbridge, EcoAdapt
Dr. Lara Hansen has worked in the non-profit sector on climate change and related issues locally and globally for over two decades, and in issues relating to sustainability a decade longer than that. In addition to her work with Sustainable Bainbridge, she is the Chief Scientist and Executive Director of EcoAdapt, a Bainbridge-based non-profit working on developing solutions to the challenges of climate change. To balance her scientific life, she works to integrate nature and art in her daily life. As an optimist she assumes we'll get our acts together on climate change--who would want the alternative? She looks forward our co-creation of a climate savvy Bainbridge Island, where we make climate-informed decisions to support better long-term outcomes. Oh, her mom made the outfit she’s likely wearing at this event.
McKayla SewNsew, past artist
McKayla SewNsew is a Pacific Northwest based artist. She enjoys working with unusual materials to make garments, often creating something with an air of the ephemeral from that which some may see as rubbish. Her wearable creations have graced the stages in many Refashion shows utilizing bubble wrap, a parachute, polyfill, discarded ballerina tutus and obsolete tech cables. She scours thrift stores for clothing treasures and frequents the bins to dig for once loved dresses in need of a new home. She encourages you to play dress up and remember that your favorite outfit can be for any day, not just that special occasion... clothes have the capacity to be the armor we show to the world and we are stronger when we feel good in them. When she is not sculpting garments she spends her time creating delightful sweet confections while exploring her role as a pastry chef.
Azalea Snowmassara (student, age 15)
Azalea SnowMassara has participated in and inspired friends to be involved with several ReFashion shows. She loves the opportunity to express her ideas through creative freedoms. She enjoys cheerleading, ice skating and theater. She likes shopping at thrift stores and hosting clothing swaps for her friends to encourage sustainability because she knows that each garment tells a story.
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3533090-0
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3533090-2
