‘Butterfly effect’ flies into national Junk Kouture final
A TRIO of students in Coláiste Bríde, Enniscorthy, have been chosen as the wild card entry into this year’s RTÉ 2FM Junk Kouture final, which will take place in the 3Arena in the autumn.
Nadine Kehoe, Lexie Carty and Aoife Moorehouse were selected for the final with their entry titled ‘The Butterfly Effect’. The dress, which will be modelled by Nadine, was designed by Lexie and Aoife, with all three involved in its creation.
The timing of their success could not be more apt given the curent crisis facing the country as their dress design is based around the concept of hope, resurrection and remembrance associated with butterflies.
The idea behind Junk Kouture is that the entries are all made from recycled materials and, with that in mind, a significant aspect of the girls’ design is that it involved using 300 respiratory tubes as part of the composition material.
Speaking to this newspaper, the school’s TY Coordinator, Margo Whelan, said it came as a great surprise to have a wild card inclusion in the final, as Coláiste Bríde already had five entries safely through to the national final.
‘We really didn’t expect that we would get a sixth entry through so we were really delighted that the girls made it through,’ she said.
For the original selection, 75 entries from around the country made it through to the final and now with Coláiste Bríde having a sixth entry in the final hopes are high that national success could be on the cards.
‘For the wild card entry, the panel visits the school and then makes a choice for the region,’ said Ms Whelan.
‘I did not think we could possibly get a sixth one through but we got the wild card,’ she added.
The team behind the design was overseen by TY teacher Frances Kervick and everyone involved is delighted to get the opportunity to showcase the dress at the national final.
In addition to the respiratory tubes, other items used to create the dress included: an old hose; a corset; a bra; net curtains; seven metres of wire; high heels; eight metres of chicken wire and shampoo bottles.
The fact that butterflies are associated with hope, resurrection and remembrance fitted perfectly with the idea of designing a dress using respiratory tubes.
Butterfly wings for the top and bottom of the dress were hand-crafted from chicken wire and the team cut, rolled and sewed corrugated respiratory tubing from a pharmaceutical company to slot into each individual section of the wire.
Earrings, shoes and the headpiece were also made from respiratory tubing.
The finish the design the students painted the dress orange and black as many of the well-known butterflies species feature those colours, including the Painted Lady and Viceroy butterflies.
In addition to the Coláíste Bríde students’ dress, four other regional student designs made it through as wild card entries. They were all chosen by RTÉ 2FM DJ, Tara Stewart, and the announcement was made live on the broadcasters social media platforms on Monday, April 6.