Designer 'junk' lands school a semi-finals slot
A group of teenagers from the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Unit in Castlepollard Community College have had their Junk Kouture design selected for semi-finals of the national fashion contest.
David Tulgara, Jack Scally, Robert Kennedy, Anna Farrell and Lee Quinn-Smith put together Sensorio Samba, drawing on Cinderella and Rio, the animated film about a domesticated macaw called Blu, for their striking design.
Geography teacher Sharon Carberry and SNA Tracey Cullen oversaw the project, and said the theme came from David, who is a talented animated designer.
“David first got the idea from Cinderella,” said Tracey. The project is all about recycling and, as we know, Cinderella cleans up after everyone. He used her ball gown as a starting point, but as the theme developed, it changed into more of a Mohawk look, going from white to blue, using the film Rio as inspiration.”
This is the first time Castlepollard Community School has entered the competition, so to get to the semi-finals of the regional competition is a coup.
“The group also drew on their own experiences in the ASD unit, promoting sensory development and fine tuning their motor skills development,” said Tracey.
A number of textured items were incorporated in the design, including bubble wrap, paper, shrink wrap, beads, wools, milk caps, mesh, feathers, and plastic wrapping from Wilfs Menswear in Mullingar.
“When choosing the materials, we thought it would be good to incorporate the dress as a sensory dress to help autistic children. Sensory plays a huge part of the life of an autistic child – touch, sound, taste and smell – so the boys decided to use different materials that would help them get over their fears.
“While working on the dress, it became very therapeutic for them cutting out shapes, gluing, sowing and stapling the materials which helped with their fine-motor skills. Also threading a needle would help their hand eye co-ordination.
“They found working with the bubble wrap great fun, bursting the bubbles. The use of the colour blue was very calming. The materials used were bubble wrap, paper, feathers, wire, table cloth, mesh, sandpaper, wool, paint, glue, staples, beads and shrink wrap,” said Tracey.
Sian McLaverty will be modelling the design at TF Royal, Castlebar next month, and Castlepollard hope to do well.
“Sian is a talented make-up artist and she will be walking the catwalk on March 7. The group brainstormed the title for the piece, which is Sensorio Samba, and Sian will be walking the catwalk to the song Beautiful Creatures.”
Castlepollard Community College, like a number of schools in Westmeath, have been entered in the west regional finals, hence the trip to Castlebar.
“We are really proud of all the students involved in this, and they are over the moon themselves,” said Tracey. “It really has been a team effort.”
A huge amount of work went into the design from when the students started getting to grips with the project last October, spending a couple of hours, at least, on it each day.
“It’s our first time in the competition so we’re hoping to do well,” said Tracey.
The public vote counts for 10% of the overall score, and people can vote by at boijunkkouture.com.
For more information, see Instagram: instagram.com/boijunkkouture/; Facebook: facebook.com/junkkouture; or email: info@junkkouture.com.