UCLA Professor Maite Zubiaurre’s Unique Course Helps Bruin Students See Beauty in the World through a Grease-stained Lens

Published: October 1, 2015

It featured a makeshift runway and a bevy of fit and beautiful young models. A casual observer passing Royce Hall might have confused it with a guerrilla presentation of designs from an eclectic new designer. But this was no fashion show — no, it was a “trashion show” staged by Professor Maite Zubiaurre. The models costumed in newspapers, Styrofoam and aluminum cans were students. Unusual? Yep. Disconcerting? Sure. Provocative? Yes, but that was the point. It was just another day for the undergraduates enrolled in what has become known as “the trash class.”

They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, but to Zubiaurre, everyone’s trash is somebody’s treasure. She finds beauty in the world through a grease-stained lens, and she has made it her mission to help UCLA students find splendor in the trash.

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