By Ciara O’Callaghan
This year two groups of Transition Year students had the opportunity of exploring Art in a different way and showcasing our creativity by designing and making two dresses made out of recycled materials. Junk Kouture is a national contest which encourages young designers in second level education to create striking couture designs and impressive works of wearable art from everyday junk that would normally find its way into the bin. Both of our teams were really happy when we had finished our dresses and when one of our dresses, Illoominate, was lucky enough to get through to the regional finals in UL, it just made all those months of hard work pay off. Getting the experience to make a kouture dress entirely from scratch was such an amazing opportunity. The Junk Kouture competition allowed us greater freedom to express our creativity than what we would normally be able to in the class room.
Being at regionals was a mind blowing experience, when we first walked into the room with all the other competitors it was like an explosion of creativity, seeing their costume ideas and wondering how they could have pulled off something so amazing. As a student who didn’t study Art for my Junior Certificate, I have now a completely different view of Art. Sitting in the audience on the night and seeing our dress up on stage modelled by one of our team members was a heart pounding moment none of us will forget. We would like to thank Mr. O’Grady, Ms. Horgan, Ms O’Neill, Ms. O’Flaherty, Ms. Ryan and Aisling Enright for all the help and support they gave us with our dresses and routines. A very special thank you to Ms. Curtin; without her help, guidance and knowledge we definitely wouldn’t have been able to create the dresses we did or gotten as far in the competition and for that we are all thoroughly grateful. Junk Kouture for us was one of the highlights of TY and is something we would highly recommend you try.
Hazelwood College entrants in the Bank of Ireland Junkkouture Competition. Pictured are (left to right) Ms Maria Curtin, Hazelwood College Art teacher, Molly Kirwan, Edel O’Flynn, dressed in ‘Illoominate’, and Ciara O’Callaghan. this group have reached the regional final.
Hazelwood College third year student, Megan Grufferty, with her group’s entry for Junkkouture ‘Purple Reign’.