RICHLAND -- Living green has never been so chic.

Six young models strutted down the runway at the Moon Festival in Richland last month clad in garbage.

No, it's not a critique on the fashion design.

The dresses were made entirely from recycled materials, including newspaper, chip bags and garbage can liners.

"It required a lot of creativity and imagination," said Virginia Kuan of Richland, who helped create a dress with ruffles made from comic strips.

The 13-year-old is one of 12 middle school students in Yichien Cooper's private art classes who designed and modeled six dresses.

Joining them was Cooper's 3-year-old daughter, Katherine, whose Dillard's bag dress was made two hours before the runway show.

"I wanted to show (the students) a fun and meaningful way to engage their awareness about how much trash we use," Cooper said.

The idea was presented to her by Elizabeth Nagel, academic director of education at Washington State University Tri-Cities, when Nagel mentioned needing a dress made from recycled material for an upcoming fundraising event.

Cooper, who teaches how to integrate art into an educational curriculum as an adjunct professor at WSU Tri-Cities, decided to have students at her private art studio make dresses as a pilot program and teach about the results.

"It brings current issues (like recycling) into a classroom setting through art," Cooper said.

Three young designers learned how to turn duct tape and newspapers into a strapless cocktail dress.

"At first I thought 'Hey, this is kind of cool,' " said Sophie Lin of Richland about using a sewing machine to gather the garbage into a flared skirt.

"It was a big project to make that one dress."

The design process began late in the summer, changing frequently as the dresses were assembled.

"We had sleeves made out of thin cardboard," said Kuan. Those came off after the girls hit a "thought block" and decided to make the ruffled top into a tank top.

"We made a lot of spontaneous decisions," she said.

A video of the runway show can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPKd-NunVyU.