The fashion world in Rome took a turn toward trashy Thursday night at Berry College — and that’s trashy in the literal sense — as designers showed their best work made from material often considered garbage.

In all, 50 models wearing the outfits made of at least 75 percent recyclable material created by 35 designers strutted down the catwalk in an effort to promote recycling.

The show was the first big effort of Project greenBERRY, a pro-recycling group thought up by Susan Atkinson and created by Berry Middle School students and teachers. The organization, which uses the slogan “rethink, revalue, recreate,” hopes to make the fashion show an annual event.

Admission was $5 per person, $2 for students, and all proceeds will benefit Keep Rome-Floyd Beautiful and the Rome-Floyd Recycling Center. A dollar amount was not available Thursday night, but Paul Atkinson, director of Berry Elementary and Middle, said about 250 people showed up to watch the fashion show.

“It was awesome. It exceeded our expectations, and we were able to get our message across,” he said.

Models showed off outfits made from newspaper, plastic bags, cardboard, magazines, juice drink pouches and even pet food bags. Some of the crowd favorites included a pair of shoes hammered out from soda cans, a building block costume made from cardboard boxes and sour cream containers, parachute pants made from a garbage bag, and a 1960s-style dress covered in flowers woven on a loom from plastic bags.

One designer almost stole the show with her “Peace, Love and Granola,” collection. Gordon Central High School junior Ariana Allee entered 16 dresses into the show (17 if her own towel dress is counted) and took home two awards for her effort. Among her designs were a dress made from 250 old CDs, one created from dyed coffee filters, another fashioned from 40 newspaper pages, and another made with travel brochures.

“I really love doing crazy stuff and being wild,” said Allee, who hopes to pursue design as a career.

Allee said she got most of her materials from a recycling center and drew her inspiration from the items she found. It took a month’s worth of hard work to complete all the dresses, but she said the experience is something she’ll be able to use in the future.

For more information about the new group, visit www.projectgreenberry.com.