Aoife McNamara and Rihann Harvey with their creations for the contest.

Tipp students showcase their fashion designer skills

Designing and making “out of the ordinary” fashion wear has uncovered the amazing imagination and dressmaking capabilities of a group of second level students, who are turning their dreams into reality.

But the amazing fashion outfits which have been made by students of Transition Year at St Mary's Secondary School, Newport, are very different from those available in any high street fashion boutique.

The challenge for the students are that all of their creations have to be made from recycled junk and waste materials which are usually discarded.

Given the challenge, the results are just amazing, eye catching and beautifully colourful fashion outfits.

The outfits are being created for the Irish stage of the worldwide, Junk Kouture Contest, which challenges post-primary school students, to design, create and model fashion, made from recycled items.

The outfits shown here, were all designed and made by students at St Mary's Secondary School, Newport and go forward later this spring for the regional rounds of the national competition.

They will be hoping that what they have created will sufficiently impress the judges to select them for a place at the National Final from which the ultimate winners will progress to the world stage in the further round of the worldwide contest.

The Junk Kouture Contest was the brainchild of Co Donegal's Troy Armour in 2010.

He realised that this could be a platform for creative students to find their tribe. Incorporating elements of environmental sustainability, fashion, art, design, and engineering, Junk Kouture annually showcases aspiring designers aged 13 – 18-years from across Ireland as they rise to the challenge to create wearable fashion – but the golden rule is that everything used must be 100% recycled!

Designers are encouraged to make use of a range of waste materials, which can include the leftovers from goods or food item containers, but there is prohibition on using any alcohol, tobacco or drugs branding or packaging unless these are being used to promote the harmful effects of misuse.

The contest started with 200 entries in the first year and to-day close to 5,000 students from all over the country are participating each year in which has become one of the fastest growing post primary students annual national contests.

The contest is now run by Junk Kouture Operations Ireland Ltd and participants for 2023 have been working on their creations since the beginning of the current school year last September.

Entries from teams across each participating territory Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Italy, USA, and United Arab Emirates are currently being submitted for the first round of selection, from which the successful entrants will progress to regional and national finals from which the winners will go forward to represent Ireland at the world contest later in the autumn.