Mayo students make it to Junk Kouture world final

Ciara McDonagh wears ‘La Mer Bougie’ by the team at Sancta Maria College

placeholder image — Ciara McDonagh wears ‘La Mer Bougie’ by the team at Sancta Maria College

The team from Sancta Maria College impressed judges at yesterday’s City Final in Dublin

Students from Sancta Maria College have made it to the world final of this year’s Junk Kouture competition.

After competing in yesterday’s city final in the RDS in Dublin, the three Louisburgh students and their teacher, Mr Tom O’Flynn, advanced to the world final and will now compete against finalists from Abu Dhabi, London, New York, Milan and Paris.

The look, entitled ‘La Mer Bougie’ by Charlotte Monaghan, Ciara McDonagh, and Jade O’Mailey, was one of ten picked from the total 60 looks to progress in the competition.

In a post on Facebook, the Mayo school wrote: “What an achievement for the students at Sancta Maria College and their fantastic teacher, Mr. Tom O’Flynn. And so the girls from Louisburgh compete in one of the style capitals of the world.”

The design is made of recycled blue tealighht cases and silver wicks from inside them. The team designed a corset out of the wicks and broken parts of the cases that were unusable for the skirt. The structure of the skirt consists of pipes and rope.

The team then strung together the tea lights onto string and twisted them to construct the skirt. The hat was cast onto model Ciara McDonagh’s head, before sticking wicks onto the headpiece, and the visor was then made of broken tealight cases.

The shoes are in the trendy style of flat pumps, and are made of crushed tealight and wicks.

Junk Kouture is the leading sustainable fashion competition for Gen-Z, and offers schools and students a creative way to become involved in active climate change initiatives, empowering them to lasting behavioural change.

For more information, see the Junk Kouture website.