Local school to showcase sustainable fashion in Athlone's Civic Centre

Members of the public are invited to view the exhibition of Athlone Community College's sustainable fashion creations this month.

Running from Monday, April 13, to Friday, April 24, the exhibit in Athlone's Civic Centre will feature the work of the school's Transition Year Creative Skills class.

Students from Athlone Community College submitted thirteen entries to Junk Kouture Fashion Competition and four entries to ReLove Fashion Competition. They were supported by their Art teachers Zara Henshaw and Suzanne Casey.

Ten of these creations will be displayed on mannequins in the Civic Centre Atrium accompanied by photography of the students wearing them and contextual information explaining their creations.

The main goal of Junk Kouture is to turn waste into high-fashion Art and the main goal of ReLove Fashion is to give old clothes a new life. Both competitions teach students that fashion can be creative and sustainable, while helping to protect the environment.

As a school, Athlone Community College submitted thirteen entries to Junk Kouture with materials varying from ties to duvet covers, fabric scraps, sacking, lenses from glasses, medical tubing and old wool - everything was on the table. New skills such as batik, crochet and sewing were explored and perfected. Two submissions were shortlisted for the Regional Finals in the Helix Dublin on 11 March.

Kian Martin’s ‘Crochet Couture’ and ‘Reef-lection’ by Ciara Connaughton, Ziva David and Aoife Holohan represented the school strongly. Kian was highly commended by judge Claire Garvey for his crochet technique and his link to a sustainable development goal – SDG5 -Gender Equality.

‘Reef- lection’ modelled by Ciara Connaughton has successfully qualified for the Junk Kouture National finals which will take place in the Helix on 7 May. ‘Reef-lection' is inspired by the work of Iris Van Herpen and is made from discarded tubing from Medtronic- a local medical device factory. The sustainable development goal – SDG 12 was relevant to this work – Responsible Consumption and Production. They drew their inspiration from the impact of plastic on marine life.

The group ‘All Tied Up’ by Amber Dolan and Lucy Donnelly made it through to the final stage of ReLove Fashion Competition. They will participate in an exhibition in the Rediscovery Centre in Dublin and then in the National finals in The Venue in DCU on 15 April. ‘All Tied Up’ morphs men’s unwanted ties into a beautiful 1980’s inspired cocktail outfit.