Granard Student wins top Relove Fashion prize
Lily staved off competition from 17 other finalists from 10 local authority areas to capture the Most Innovative title.
A Longford student has won the Most Innovative Category in the Grand Final of the Relove Fashion Competition.
The competition final took place yesterday (Thursday) where Lily Hemus of Cnoc Mhuire Granard was named among the prize winners.
Longford County Council is one of 10 local authorities in the Eastern Midlands Region involved in the Relove Fashion competition which encourages students to take a deeper look at how their clothing is made.
The Eastern Midlands Region provides a framework for the prevention and management of waste in a sustainable manner.
This year, two finalists from each local authority in the Eastern Midlands Region went forward to the Grand Final. Then five winners were selected in the following categories: Best Casual, Best Evening, Innovation, Tailoring and one Overall Winner.
Lily staved off competition from 17 other finalists from 10 local authority areas to capture the Most Innovative title.
For Lily’s she sourced her materials from a charity shop, a neighbour and the school bins. The materials and clothing are made from plastic, aluminium, polycotton and polyester.
As part of her entry, Lily cited fast fashion as one of the leading causes of global warming, and believes it is important to make a stand against the mass production of poor-quality clothing if we want a full bright and clean future for our planet.
She feels we must be more conscious of what we buy as consumers and suggests that buying second hand and from sustainable companies will lead to a massive decline in fast fashion and will help slow down climate change.
Longford County Council Environmental Awareness Officer Gary Brady says the competition is a wonderful way to generate environmental awareness in the school-going generation.
“I’d like to congratulate Lily and her teacher Charmaine Hetherton at Cnoc Mhuire in Granard on their victory – it’s great to see the work of local schools being recognised at the Grand Final.
"We were also delighted to have Ardscoil Phadraig represented there as well – well done to Funmi Talabi, Dearbhaila Lynch, Maria Ledwith, Zoe Columb, Tara Spollen, Kaitlyn Farrell, Aoife Reilly and their teacher Mary Cooney on reaching the final.”
The Grand Final was hosted by the Rediscovery Centre in Ballymun, Dublin. The competition was also featured on Ireland AM on Virgin Media TV yesterday morning in advance of the final.