Part of the page in this week's paper featuring the designs (full page, and all images below).
Junk Kouture designs by St Finian's College students
‘Bouquet of Colour’ – Eimear Peters (model), Ailbhe O’Farrell, and Meabh L’Estrange: Bouquet of Colour was inspired by the natural beauty of flowers. St Finian’s is lucky to be located on beautiful grounds and the students took inspiration from the nature they encounter on a daily basis. Cardboard toilet roll tubes were manipulated into spirals and painted in ombre pink and green with paper flowers adding texture and movement to the top.
‘Shattered Rainbow’ – Keelin Burke (model), Anna Sheehy. When white light is dispersed into all visible colours, a rainbow is formed. The girls transformed a discarded white sheet into a rainbow using colour sample charts. These are often wasted, as many of us take several when choosing our decor and then simply discard them afterwards. Inspired by old crinoline skirts, the girls made their voluminous skirt atop a handmade wire structure reinforced with three hula hoops. The top was carefully covered with old CD parts. Their design highlights how easily discarded objects can be transformed into something vibrant and colourful.
‘Music to My Ears’ – Lauren McCormack (model), Lynne Clarke. The design was inspired by music. St Finian’s is a school with a national reputation for music and the students wanted to capture that by creating a piece out of discarded musical notes and scores from the music department. A paper mache mask was also created. It was painted black for contrast with a paper fan added to tie the two pieces together.
‘Joan’s Love War Symphony’ – Saoirse Murtagh (model), Sorcha Ni Choiligh, Isabelle Cox. The theme of this piece is love and war, and it was inspired by the patron saint of France, Joan of Arc. Through the use of cans, CDs, canvas, and other discarded materials, they were able to create an armour-like design that accentuates the concept of modern femininity. Red acrylic, left over from the technology department projects was added, alongside a hand painted pink dove, to express the pain of love and war.
‘Unwritten’ – Abigail O’Connor (model), Molly Goldsberry, Kila Fagan-McDermott. All three girls are avid readers who became aware of the sheer amount of resources it takes to create books and how many are wasted each year. Using unwanted books donated by the school community, they created a beautiful, classic gown inspired by the classic novels ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Little Women’.
‘Space Man’ – Ronan Matthews (model), Alannah Corroon-Glavin. ‘Space Man’ is a combination of both runway fashion and outer space inspiration. The team were inspired by the exaggeration of the human form often seen on male runway fashion. Made from cardboard and recycled aluminium, ‘Space man’ visually represents the amount of aluminium not currently recycled in local waste collections. They used wire and pull tabs from the cans to create star shaped designs in trousers created from an old couch cover.
‘Attire’ – Niamh Farrell (model), Fearne Coyne. ‘Attire’ seeks to highlight the amount of waste materials left in garages while also promoting cycling as the most sustainable travel option. The team utilised leftover materials like tyres, reflectors, and wire from Fearne’s father’s bike shop. They took visual inspiration from the TY School of Rock Musical to create a rock look that also promotes the importance of safety and wearing a helmet.
‘Unmasked’ – Catherine Finnerty (model), Isabel Nortje, Alana Feeley. Inspired by the pandemic, the team wanted to communicate the impact of Covid-19 and the effect it had on people. The model is unmasked and leftover face masks on the skirt were repurposed into beautiful flowers, symbolising hope. These were combined on a discarded sheet with leather shapes from damaged footballs to represent lockdown and how everything – sports and social activities especially – were shut down during that time.
‘The Blue Ribbon’ – Eadaoin Granahan (model), Nessa Mahon, Gemma Higgins. The design seeks to bring awareness to child abuse. Inspired by the charity, it is titled ‘The Blue Ribbon’. The newspaper/book cutouts used represent the lack of representation on the issue. The headpiece represents a blindfold – indicating that so many are blind to abuse. The bow sash, painted with Van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’, represents the therapy that art can provide, often as a form of escape. The gown was created from an old couch cover, a white discarded bed sheet and clear plastic sacks, plastic flowers and paper swirls completing the look.
