We've all heard of wash and wear, but read and wear?

It can be done – with a stack of newspapers, some fabric and a lot of creativity.

At the recent Sacramento Film & Music Festival, the event kicked off with a fashion show featuring 10 local designers whose main "ingredient" was The Bee.

The first Sacramento Bee Fashion Challenge was held at the Crest Theatre. The designers were given 20 copies of the newspaper (all sections) and a budget of $50 to create a red-carpet- worthy design.

Each designer had his or her outfit modeled on the Crest stage, complete with hair, makeup and accessories. The styles ranged from a traditional newsboy ensemble to a full-on ballgown. Judges scored the designs based on construction, style, theme, creativity, use of The Bee and overall impression.

We chatted with the top three designers about their inspiration and their hard work. And can you read it and wear it?

• Melinda Carrie (first place): Carrie, 24, is an assistant designer at Miosa Couture on J Street in Sacramento. Her inspiration surrounds her every day – the beautiful bridal gowns created by Miosa owner Michael Sommerfield.

"One of the big trends in bridal is floral," Carrie said. "I cut strips of paper and hand-pleated them to form the flowers on my dress."

To avoid any wardrobe malfunctions since paper is so delicate, Carrie laid the paper over fabric for both the bodice and skirt.

"I sorted through the pages and chose black and white since I knew I was going to spray paint it red," she said.

Her dress was strong enough to support a zipper and ribbons to tie the bodice in back. The bodice, by the way, was made entirely from the Sac Bee movie listings.

Carrie said it took her 48 hours (with 34 hours from an assistant) to complete the dress, which was modeled by Miss Teen Sacramento, Michelle Parker.

• Jesus Medrano (second place): Medrano, 30, works in retail and is a fashion design student at American River College. His first idea was to do something with origami, which already is a paper design.

"I changed my mind because I'm obsessed with the look of the show 'Mad Men,' and I love Marilyn Monroe, so I decided to create a dress from that era," Medrano said.

At first, Medrano did the entire dress out of newspaper, but he and his assistant saw something was missing.

"We found lace with glitter through it, so we did an overlay. I was going to use a crinoline under the skirt but, to make it interesting, I scrunched papers underneath it instead."

Medrano said it took about a week and a half, five hours each day to complete his dress. "I was lucky because I had worked with my model before," he said.

• Edward John Radanovich III (third place): Radanovich, 29, is a freelance designer who also works in a commercial print shop. He's a recent graduate of the International Academy of Design & Technology in Sacramento. His inspiration came from the source: The Bee.

"I like the way the newspaper is set up with the sections in order. Each panel of my dress represents one section of The Bee," he said. "The lower part then becomes a collage of all the sections."

Radanovich says when he first saw his dress on the model he thought of Coco Chanel, "especially the little touch of lace on the halter top." To hold the newspaper together he used thick innerfacing and muslin, which allowed him to sew on a machine, except for the back of the dress and the lace, which were hand-sewn.

Radanovich said it took about five days to create the dress. His next venture? A fall/winter collection which he hopes to debut in October.

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Call The Bee's Leigh Grogan, (916) 321-1129.

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