Sustainability and Sequins

By Bella Nguyen

The stage lights dim, the curtains close, and the hundreds of polyester costumes head straight to the landfill. Seeing how quickly dance costumes can become waste made me think about my own role in addressing sustainability. I feel connected to sustainability on campus through my dance club, Xpressions Dance Company. We host a showcase every semester, featuring approximately 15 different dances, each requiring unique costumes for its performance. These costumes are often bought from fast fashion manufacturers, such as Shein, due to affordability concerns. They are typically worn only once on stage and then are thrown away or donated. During last year’s rehearsal, as I handed out costumes, I noticed the huge box filled with an overwhelming number of individually plastic-wrapped clothing items and realized just how much waste our club was generating.

I pitched the idea of having an Xpressions costume bin, where dancers could return their costumes to our supply and get reused in the following semesters. This idea was a win-win: Dancers got to get rid of costumes that would otherwise sit in their closets, and we reduced the need to purchase costumes for future performances. From sequin button-downs to mesh-patterned tops, the bin overflows with variety, offering something for everyone. Before the next showcase, dancers crowded around the bin, dug through it, and mixed and matched until they found the perfect costume. Endless combinations emerged as once clean-cut contemporary costumes were layered with other shirts, ties, and scarves, taking on entirely new personalities. The room buzzed with laughter and excitement as dancers reminisced on past dances, reimagining old costumes to give them new life on stage. Each costume they pulled out not only saved them money but also gave them a chance to make a more sustainable choice.

Watching this idea come to life filled me with pride and relief; seeing the joy on my teammates’ faces as they pieced together new costumes gave me hope that our small effort could spark a bigger change. It also made me think about how small changes like this, if practiced more widely, could challenge the throwaway habits encouraged by fast fashion. Our club’s reliance on affordable sites like Shein highlights the larger fast-fashion cycle outside of dance, where clothing is designed to be cheap, follow micro-trends, and be short-lived. Dance costumes are a smaller-scale version of the throwaway culture that dominates the fashion industry, and by repurposing these pieces, we can break that cycle and show that costumes and clothing do not have to be disposable.

The reality is that our club turns to fast-fashion retailers because they are affordable, especially when on a student budget. This highlights the complexity of sustainability when financial limitations and environmental responsibility are in tension. The success of our costume bin shows that environmental responsibility doesn’t always require new resources; it can emerge from rethinking what we already have. Although seemingly small-scale, the costume bin is a model for low-cost, community-driven sustainability, showing that student organizations can adopt green practices even within financial constraints. By carrying these habits into our daily lives, we can resist the fast-fashion culture that pushes constant consumption. Our costume bin may seem like a small gesture, but it points to a much larger possibility – that meaningful change begins when many people choose to act differently.