Athlone Community College student, Eve Carey, was one of six designers recognised for their sustainable creativity at the recently hosted ‘Sustainable Designers of the Future’ awards which took place in the Rediscovery Centre in Ballymun.
Eve achieved the premier accolade in the ‘Best Evening’ category for her sustainable design at which secondary school students from around the Midlands, East and Dublin regions competed for the Relove Fashion awards by creating outfits using discarded textiles and reimagining them into wearable clothing.
The award-winning Relove Fashion competition encourages students to take a deeper look at how their clothing is made. This year’s competition featured twenty two finalists who made wearable outfits from materials such as curtains, bed sheets, bike tubes, discarded packaging and accessories made from coconut shells.
The overall winner was announced as Beth Brady from St Joseph’s Mercy Secondary School in Co. Meath. Beth created her outfit from old seatbelts, an old bomber jacket, torn lining from the family linen basket, an old cot sheet, donated fabric and zip once destined to be used for a bridesmaid’s dress, a pair of her dad’s old jeans and scrap fabric. The top was also dyed using onion skins and her accessories were made from the shell of an eaten coconut.
The Relove Fashion competition judges were Arran Murphy Rediscover Fashion Programme Manager at the Rediscovery Centre, Lorraine Keane broadcaster and founder of Fashion Relief, Aisling Duffy Sustainable Fashion Designer and Dr. Joanne Rourke Environmental Scientist from the Eastern-Midlands Region Waste Management Plan Office.
“I have been involved with Relove Fashion for three years now and each year I am blown away with the ingenuity of the students. This year we’ve had students who have created wearable items from seat belts, tyre tubes, curtains and left over textiles. With their beautiful creations the students have proven yet again that sustainable fashion is accessible, creative and practical,” competition judge, Lorraine Keane, stated.
“I look forward to this competition every year as it is so encouraging to see the students putting sustainability at the heart of creating their outfit. For this competition students cannot buy anything new, all of the material has to be sourced from a charity shop, swap shop or reuse items already available at home. It encourages students to take a deeper look at how their clothing is made and challenges them to explore creative reuse options such as upcycling, repairs, alterations and mending,” fellow competition judge, Arran Murphy, added.
Eleven local authorities came together, with the Rediscovery Centre, to create the Relove Fashion competition. The competition is funded by the eleven participating local authorities - Westmeath, Dublin City, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, Kildare, Longford, Louth, Meath, South Dublin, Offaly and Wicklow.
