Wilson's students aim to inspire with their creations

Junk Kouture regional finals

Two teams from Wilson’s Hospital School have qualified to the regional finals in the Junk Kouture competition – ‘Aquacultural’ by Clodagh Ramsey and ‘Whisper of the Wild’ by Veronica Ogunleye and Benardine Appiah Konadu, who worked with their teacher Ms Justyna Byrne.

The competition is on Monday 4 March at 7pm in the Helix in Dublin.

Junk Kouture is a fashion competition for post-primary school students for which participants design, create and model fashion made from recycled items.

‘Aquacultural’ (by Clodagh Ramsey from Killucan), with its powerful, yet feminine silhouette, is an organic design made with more than 2,000 Irish blue mussel shells intricately placed over lace.

The shells were collected weekly from Mullingar restaurant ‘Pasta Bella’, then scrubbed and glazed. Broken pieces were ground down into powder and donated to community gardeners as organic fertiliser.

The Mohawk headpiece, inspired by Phillip Treacy, was made from recycled feathers and an unwanted souvenir ship. The warrior mohawk is a symbol of empowerment and rebellion.

‘Aquacultural’ aims to highlight the battle the world faces to feed more than nine billion people.

With suitable land being more scarce and less productive and the issues of conflict and climate change, we need to look at alternatives to how we farm and source our food.

Aquaculture, known as ‘blue farming’, offers the opportunity to harvest healthy ecofriendly protein that has a low carbon output, filters our lakes, rivers, and oceans and requires no feed or antibiotics. It could be a powerful solution in the fight to reach global targets for zero hunger.

Ireland is ranked the second most food secure country in the world, yet one in five children have gone to school or bed hungry.

‘Aquacultural’ is a call to action. This sustainable, circular design has 30kg of compostable organic waste which can continue to have a purpose beyond this competition.

‘Whisper of the Wild’ (by Veronica Ogunleye and Benardine Appiah Konadu from Mullingar and Longford respectively) is a creative spin of Victorian fashion inspired by the protagonist of the old European folktale ‘Little Red Riding Hood’.

The dress takes on the innocent and delicate nature of the character with its sheer curtain ruffles and curtain-lining roses, as well as a bold and dramatic burgundy colour to demonstrate Little Red Riding Hood’s daring curiosity, while symbolising individuality, ambition, power and sophistication.

The upturned skirt was inspired by the free and subtle elegance worn by ladies residing in the countryside during the Victorian era. The classic Victorian colour palette consisted of dark, rich, deep colours of maroon, red, chestnut and burgundy, which gave a great setting for the colour of the curtains.

A mixture of science and creativity were deployed in making the decoration; preserved oranges were carefully dehydrated over many hours, and leaves, soaked in a homemade glycerine solution for many weeks, and pressed between books.

The oranges display an adventurous, creative, and positive emblem for the dress and coupled with the leaves, show a side of freedom in the wild.

The dress was created with simple but unique materials, including the dehydrated oranges, plus dehydrated lemons, the preserved leaves and the burgundy curtains with all their components, curtain rings, linings and sheer curtains. The curtains had hung for 18 years, before they were finally changed after a house refurnishing.

Veronica, who designed the dress, hopes to inspire others to incorporate science with creativity, to be adventurous and to manipulate materials into entirely new unique creations.