Green Fashion A Winner For Newtown Artist

By Nancy K. Crevier

Move over Hawaiian grass skirts. Karen Lewis-Booth is on the move.

When Karen-Lewis Booth of Newtown spotted the ad for the Danbury Fair Mall and Housatonic Valley Cultural Alliance “Recycle the Runway” contest, she knew it was right up her alley. “I’ve been working with recycled materials in my art for years,” said Ms Lewis Booth. She studied art at Southern Connecticut College, but even before that she liked to utilize items from nature, fashioning her creations from oversized acorns, moss, vines, pussy willows, bark, and even bits of natural sponge that she found along the beach.

“I’ve been doing this my whole life. I just see something and my mind starts going,” said Ms Lewis-Booth. “I can’t go hiking without coming home with a shirt full of stuff,” she laughed. Even while raising her children, she incorporated crafts made from natural and recovered items into their day, she said. Then last year, she began to focus on making usable and decorative art from recycled materials.

“I save packing wrap and packing materials, cardboard tubes, those molded cardboard corners from furniture shipments, corrugated cardboard, and all kinds of things. I love the different textures that they have,” she said. Wall hangings, decorative bowls, pillows stuffed with fluffed up strips of brown bags, and even gift boxes are in her repertoire.

“I make bracelets from beads of colored pages from National Geographic Magazines,” she said. Not only is that magazine her favorite for reading, the quality, glossy stock on which it is printed makes a very durable bead, she said.

“I’ve been teaching kids to make these bracelets for years,” said Ms Lewis-Booth, “and I tell them if it falls apart, you don’t have to feel badly. It didn’t cost a lot to make, and your aren’t hurting the earth.”

She has made handbags and pocket books from corrugated cardboard and from honeycomb paper packing material, a kimono out of recycled florists’ paper, and a vest of woven strips of corrugated cardboard, based on the pattern of a vest worn by her great-grandmother. Her designs are original, and she has taught herself the skills needed to make the items that she produces.

It was the vest that further inspired Ms Lewis Booth to enter the April 21 “Nod to Earth Day” contest. “I basically built on the design of the vest to make my dress,” she said, “and a dress was what we had to make.”

She submitted her design, photos of her other work, and an essay to the judges, and in early April was notified that she was one of three finalists who would be putting together a dress made of recycled materials at the Danbury Fair Mall  — in just one hour.

“We were able to do some of the work beforehand, and it’s a good thing,” she said. “I probably put in about 14 hours before the contest, making the strips, weaving the pieces, and cutting the dried pumpkin stems into buttons.”

On the morning of April 21, she arrived at the mall with all of her materials and set to work finishing up her creation in the center court.

“I still had to piece it all together and glue and stitch it together, and the whole time we were being photographed and interviewed, so it was a little distracting,” she said. “I’m great at improvising. I needed to keep the pieces flat while I worked with it, and at home I would have used books. So I had to use wooden coffee stirrers clipped with clothespins to hold the seams flat while the glue dried, but it worked out great,” said Ms Lewis-Booth.

At the end of the hour, the knee-length dress of woven corrugated cardboard strips, adorned with the pumpkin stem buttons and a cardboard shawl collar was finished and settled nicely upon the mannequin for judging. As a finishing touch, she wound a necklace made of her National Geographic beads in different shades of green about the neck of the mannequin.

The three judges, Kristen Jensen, Jennifer Moon Kozlowski of Closet Raiders, and Carter Boyajian of Just Carter, Inc, were impressed.

“All three of the entries were great,” said Ms Jensen of Bethel, owner of Kristen Jensen Photography and a former international fashion model with Ford Models. “But Karen’s piece was really thought out and something you could really wear. The first thing, her designed piece was all completely from recycled items. It was purely organic, and authentically ‘there’ on using recyclables from the environment. The use of pumpkin stems for buttons was amazing,” said Ms Jensen. “Karen really seems to live and breathe organic recycling.”

All three of the finalists showed “amazing talent,” said Ms Jensen, but it was to Karen Lewis-Booth that they awarded first place in the Danbury Fair Mall and Housatonic Valley Cultural Alliance’s “Recycle the Runway.”

For her efforts, Ms Lewis Booth received a $500 gift card.

 “It didn’t take me long to go through the gift card,” laughed Ms Lewis-Booth. “I treated the people who supported me in this, my friends, and I bought myself a beautiful handbag, and a few things for my family. We don’t have a lot, so we just had fun with this money.”

“The contest was very exciting. I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I’d be,” said Ms Lewis-Booth. “The publicity from the contest has been such a boost to my spirits and for my self-confidence,” she said.

She is keeping her fingers crossed that she will win the second phase of the contest. The three entries are on display in the lower center court of Danbury Fair Mall through May 19, where the public can vote on their favorite piece. The winner takes home another $100. “Wouldn’t that be great?” said Ms Lewis Booth.

Ms Lewis-Booth has sold her artwork at craft fairs in the area for a number of years, but is looking to expand her business. “I’m open to doing private parties for children or adults, to make recycled crafts, and I can also make items to order,” she said. She can be contacted at greenzwear@hotmail.com for more information.

And what of the winning dress?

“I won’t be wearing it, but I’m tossing around ideas of what to do with it after May 19,” said Ms Lewis-Booth. “We may put it up for an online auction and donate the money to some ecological organization. I’m just not sure yet.”