Upcycled fashion created at GoPro Mountain Games
What’s old is new again when artists freshening up garments
Tricia Swenson/Vail Daily
When you first hear about the GoPro Mountain Games, you may think it is just a sporting event. Even though over 30 mountain adventure sports are featured and athletes show up from around the world to compete, there’s an artistic component as well. Throughout the weekend, festival goers have been able to share their creative side as well. “Athletes -Art – Music – Mountains” is not only a tagline, but it’s also woven into the fabric of the games. And by fabric, we mean fashion.
The first-ever Mountain Games Fashion Show will be held on Sunday at the CoLab at the BF Goodrich Gear Town. The brains behind this endeavor are Abby Wren and her husband, Wade Holland. The duo has been a part of the Mountain Games for quite a few years and created the CoLab to bring in all sorts of interesting guests covering all sorts of topics while also participating in the event.
Wren is a creative makeup artist and alopecia advocate. After losing her hair to this autoimmune disease, she began using creative makeup to express her femininity. She is sought after each year because of her talents in creating incredible face paint looks, flash tattoos and people are just drawn to her at the Mountain Games.
“I’m so excited for the fashion show, the whole goal was to upcycle and lean into the mission of sustainability here at the GoPro Mountain Games,” Wren said. The Vail Valley Foundation, the nonprofit organizer of the Mountain Games, gathered jackets from other events they host like the Birds of Prey Alpine World Cup ski races. There are T-shirts, beanies, baseball caps and all sorts of other items that are being upcycled for the fashion show.
To carry out the designs and inspirations, Wren brought in artist Pat Milbery and stylist and designer Fresh Sam, both from the Front Range.
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“We are bringing together two very different kinds of artists. We have Pat Milbery, who’s traditionally a mural artist, super, super talented, and he works with very vibrant, bright colors to do his artwork all around the heart and feeling connected, I love his mission so much,” Wren said. “Then I paired him with another artist who is very different, and that’s Fresh Sam. She is known for her brand Infatú, it’s incredible. She does custom hats, custom jackets. She is just a wonder. I’ve always loved her work.”
Milbery and FreshSam have been doing custom pieces all weekend long from 12:30 to 3 p.m. at The CoLab Stage in the BF Goodrich Gear Town at Solaris.
“So we’re upcycling every single piece, and they’re going to be creating custom pieces for everyone. Kids and adults alike can come by the collab stage and work on their custom piece of clothing,” Wren said. “We’ve given name tags to everyone, and they can pick up the pieces that they’ve made all weekend long at the end of the weekend and be a part of the fashion show on stage.”
Milbery said they’ve been having fun interacting with Mountain Games attendees and upcycling clothing.
“I basically use my imagination to rethink, recreate and customize something for that person specifically. They choose some of the colors, I choose some of the colors, and then they can guide me on a design, or they just let me freestyle,” Milbery said. “I am just going to do my very best to create some different pieces.”
For Fresh Sam, it’s her first trip to the GoPro Mountain Games and she loves the upcycling idea. She’s upcycled over 800 one-of-a-kind denim jackets and saved over 800,000 gallons of water doing it.
“I gravitated toward denim because of its just longevity, its quality. But one denim jacket takes 1,200 gallons of water to create,” Fresh Sam said. “And then, obviously, we’re always trying to save apparel from going into the landfill.”
Her brand, Infatú, is attracting attention from all sorts of musical acts and industries like The Pharcyde, Ashanti, Smino, and she’s collaborating with major institutions including Netflix, The Grammys and Puma. Fresh Sam said she’s enjoying her time here and she and Pat are having fun recreating pieces.
“I saw Pat making a t-shirt that was from a past GoPro Mountain Games. And then he just boosted it up with different fun accents and they were thrilled. They thought it was so cool,” Fresh Sam said. “It’s great to be a part of this.”
Stop by The CoLab stage in BF Goodrich Gear Town for the Mountain Games Fashion Show at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday to see what’s been created in the last few days and get inspired to upcycle and recycle your own clothing. For more information, go to MountainGames.com.
