Our Laguna: Artists show off fashion flare

Elsberry used packaging and wrapping material for his layered entry that began with a gun-toting robot, which shed its exterior and weapons on its runway-long train to reveal the delicious Erika Baldwin in a white cut-paper dress molded to her body and carrying a staff hooked to an equally long white train pulled up from under the runway.

It was as much performance art as fashion.

The judges awarded the "Most Exciting Ensemble" to artists Brittany Ryan and Elizabeth McGhee for "Miss Communication," an elaborate Victorian outfit that included a dress, hat, purse and parasol created primarily from newspapers, telephone pieces and cassette tape.

McGhee modeled the dress, which included elements that had been used in the two previous shows. Cork disks on the bodice were adapted from a flapper skirt in the 2009 show. The collar came from an outfit in the 2011 show.

It didn't take an art expert to figure out what had inspired jeweler Adam Neeley's entry, which won the "Most Innovative Use of Materials Award." His homage to Frida Kahlo was composed of more than 1,000 corn husks, dipped in gold and sparkles. The bodice was formed from fuschia-colored cardboard left over from a child's school project. The flowers for the iconic headdress were borrowed from a dilapidated plastic bouquet.

Painter Annette Wimmer created and modeled a tailored, two-piece suit and hat, woven from packaging supplies and aluminum foil. She carried a handbag made out of shopping bags, with a chain strap of pull tabs and garden string.