Junk Kouture ‘warriors’ return with ‘Coatlicue’

(Above) David Tugara modelling this year's entry.

Sarah Slevin

A group of students from Castlepollard Community College are one of five Junk Kouture Grand Finalists from Westmeath, along with groups from Our Lady’s Bower Secondary School, Athlone, and two from Moate Community School.

The annual Junk Kouture competition, backed by RTÉ and supported by Creative Ireland, challenges students to reuse and recycle materials to create fashion designs.

They recently announced their 35 grand finalists, selected by judges Louis Walsh, Michelle Visage and Roz Purcell.

A group of three Leaving Certificate students from Castlepollard Community College have made the finals with their design ‘Coatlicue’.

Robert Kennedy, Jack Scally and David Tugara joined forces again this year, alongside English and Geography teacher, Sharon Carberry, having made regional finals last year.

David is the lead designer and has an interest in ancient warriors, which served as inspiration for their designs.

“David has always had a real interest in past warriors and historical wars, so that was a concept he wanted to go with this year, which linked in with our concept last year,” Sharon said.

Their design was inspired by a particular Aztec warrior called Coatlicue, which reflects the name of their creation.

“This year we wanted to put a different spin on it from last year. We wanted it to be more colourful and brighter, to tie in with coming out of the different lockdowns,” Sharon said.

The three students are in the ACS unit in Castlepollard and are all delighted they made the grand finals for their last year in school.

Sharon mentioned that the boys worked hard on the design and had great support from their two SNAs, Tracy Cullen and Marie Mulvey.

“They would have been there constantly with the boys and every chance they got they were working on that design,” Sharon said.

The group were resourceful their creation and used a range of different materials to bring the design to life.

The students gave a new home to rejuvenated denim and a bicycle helmet, while also using a countless amount of the plastic found wrapped around of briquettes and bales of hay.

The finals will take place later this year and would usually be a big show in the 3arena.

With Covid-19 restrictions, it is unlikely to be a big scale in-person event this year, but Sharon said that they will still make the most of the celebration.

“Last year’s regional finals only showed the design on the YouTube channel, so we did a zoom call with all of us together and we watched it live, so I’m hoping to something similar for the final,” she said.