Sustainable fashion award for local student
St Joseph's Mercy Secondary School student Beth Brady has been announced the overall winner at the Relove Fashion Competition for an outfit she created using old seatbelts and an old cot sheet among other scrap fabrics.
The sustainable designers of the future were unveiled at a unique awards ceremony on 23rd March at the Rediscovery Centre where secondary school students from around the Eastern, Midlands and Dublin region 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 22 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 Navan.
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.
A second local award winner was Elizabeth Cooper, Coláiste Clavin, Longwood, who won the award for best tailoring.
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.
Lorraine Keane said: "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."
Arran Murphy said "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."
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 Dublin City, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, Kildare, Longford, Louth, Meath, South Dublin, Westmeath, Offaly and Wicklow.