Offaly design set for televised Junk Kouture final
An Offaly design is among the 40 qualifiers who will take part in the Junk Kouture Grand Final to be shown on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player at 7pm on December 9.
Students from Sacred Heart Secondary School, Tullamore, qualified from the regional final earlier this year and will now take part in the national final.
Their design draws attention to the carbon footprint made from the meat industry. As leather is a by-product, its production has high environmental costs.
The extensive rearing of livestock in order to manufacture leather has severe environmental impacts such as deforestation, water and land overuse, and gas emissions, the students pointed out.
Their outfit intends to give faux leather a rebirth and to show that you can reduce, reuse and recycle your faux leather at the same fashionable value.
Faux leather is artificial or synthetic leather, which does not use animal hides.
The materials used for the design were old pieces of faux leather, which the team collected from friends, family, and kindly from charity shops. They have been manipulated in a variety of ways. For example, the hand sewing technique created elegant flowers in various different colours.
The skill of using a sewing machine was mastered in order to create diverse textures, patterns and forms, giving the outfit a seamless yet elegant look.
The broadcast of the Junk Kouture final by RTÉ enables these talented young people to express themselves to a wider audience while embracing sustainable habits and becoming the future changemakers of our world.
The 2021 finalists will have to impress a star-studded panel of judges including Roz Purcell, star of RuPaul’s Drag Race Michelle Visage, TV personality and music manager Louis Walsh, former winner and fashion designer Stephen McLaughlin alongside technical judges Head of Department of Fine Art and Education in Limerick School of Art and Design Dr Tracy Fahey and Programme Director for Fashion Design at Griffith College Jane Leavy.
On the night, the overall winner of Junk Kouture 2021 will be announced live on television, as well as the five regional winners.
Then it will be over to the Junk Kouture After Party on the Junk Kouture YouTube channel at 8pm, where the remainder of the awards are presented including two Glamour awards, Creative for a Cause award, Finishing Touches award, Best Performance award, the Most Unusual Material award, plus the Teacher of the Year award.
Viewers at home will also have the chance to have their say and vote for their favourites with the RTÉ 2FM Audience Award. They can vote online on RTÉ.ie from December 9 -19, with the winner announced on RTÉ 2FM on Monday, December 20.