Schools gear up for finals of Junk Kouture
FOUR SECONDARY schools from County Wexford will feature in this year’s Junk Kouture grand final which will take place in the 3Arena, Dublin, this coming Thursday, April 19.
The event, which is a sell out, is one of the most prestigious national competitions on the school calendar and gives students an opportunity to create clothes using recycled material.
The ingenuity and innovation displayed by students is always of an extremely high standard and this year there was an eclectic range it items entered.
The students from Wexford who won their way through to the final include: Estella Crean and Olga Pilarek (Colaiste Bride, Enniscorthy) for their entry, ‘Flare Eggcellence’, Aoife Clauson and Aine Byrne (FCJ, Bunclody), with ‘Meet the Little Flockers’; Laura Ryan (Ramsgrange Community School), with ‘Safari Queen’; Emily Kavanagh and Katie Leppla (Gorey Community School), for ‘Eggstravaganza’; Anna Burke and Alexandra Giran (Colaiste Bride, Enniscorthy), with ‘Quirk It Up’, and Sarah Boyce and Niamh MacAogain (Colaiste Bride, Enniscorthy), with ‘Hanoanana’.
There were 1,533 Kouture outfits entered this year and from that number just 86 made it through to the final.
Aimed specifically at secondary schools Junk Kouture is now firmly established as Ireland’s leading fashion and art competition.
Such is the popularity of the initiative that the Grand Final is sold out which means the Wexford girls will be modelling and showcasing their creations before a capacity 3Arena audience.
In addition to the action on the catwalk some of Ireland’s hottest new music acts are also set to appear at the event including pop star, Jake Carter, who won Dancing With Stars, and four-piece indie-pop act, Fallen Lights.
Dance troupe XOD are scheduled to open the show.
With days to go the finalists are making sure their masterpieces are perfect for the occasion where they will be judged by style guru, Pippa O’Connor, and X-Factor and Ireland’s Got Talent judge, Louis Walsh. They will be joined by fashion educators and experts, Tracey Fahey and Jane Leavey.
An additional judge this year will be First Class graduate of Limerick School of Art and Design, Stephen McLaughlin - who is also a past winner of the competition.
Commenting on the standard of this year’s entries Sara Ryan, from Junk Kouture, said the entries this year were ‘overwhelming’.
‘The standard each year is just getting better and better,’ she said.
‘The extraordinary talent of the students is truly blowing us away.’