Julie Claire "JC" Guest ’11

Julie Claire Guest ’11 looks displeased when she receives Al Gore ’69 as her source for inspiration in FM’s third annual Fast Fashion Challenge.

“Al Gore is probably not who I look [to] for inspiration when making clothing, I must say,” Guest says. “I probably would never recommend anyone to look to Al Gore for fashion advice.”

But despite Guest’s assertion that using Gore as a design inspiration would only result in a fashion faux pas, she adheres to Gore’s policy of reducing, reusing, and recycling. In fact, she normally buys second-hand clothes, and enthusiastically recommends that people buy food at expired food markets like “Amazing Savings” in her hometown of Ashville, N.C.

“I don’t see myself as embodying what Al Gore talks about,” she says, “but I’m going to try and not use any new fabric.”

Shortly after the beginning of the challenge, Guest frantically searches the $1.50 per pound pile of used clothing at the Garment District (she was, after all, on deadline).

Guest emerges some time later from the piles of old button-downs, outdated blazers, and puffy ski-jackets with a diverse selection of fabrics. Clutched in her arms are oversized shirts and dresses in varying shades of blues and greens.

While Guest may have felt a time crunch, money isn’t an issue. At the register, armed with 5.4 pounds of used clothing, Guest manages to spend $5.40 out of the $24 limit. The pound goes for only $1.00 on Fridays.

As the shopping trip came to its eco-friendly end, Guest has just one complaint. “I’m really upset that I didn’t bring my own plastic bag,” Guest says. “It really annoys me.”

Guest’s final product is something that Gore would be delighted to wear in his feminine reincarnation. Made entirely of second-hand materials, the colorful sun-dress, with thin purple straps and a button-enclosure down the back, looks like something right off a mannequin in Urban Outfitters.

Confident in her design, Guest prepares to take the Sanctum by storm.