Local Junk Kouture design to take part in Monaco world final
A dress inspired by the famed designer Missoni and made from plastic colour testers from Delta Q, a plastics manufacturer in Athlone, will compete in the Junk Kouture World Final in Monaco this Thursday.
The Moate Community School entry #TagMe was named as one of ten winners at the Junk Kouture Dublin City Final Powered by RTÉ in 3Arena, Dublin last May. It was made by Eva Donlon from Tubber, Ballymore's Méabh O'Shea and Evie Nugent from Mount Temple.
The group was praised for its stunning design which saw over 2,500 tags, handsewn together into a colourful dress and headpiece. The plastic samples usually end up in landfill because the different colours make them difficult to recycle.
Speaking previously, Méabh said: “We wanted to incorporate colourful designs and patterns into our dress to make more striking impacts when we're on stage and in photos." The students estimate that around 5,000 plastic tags were used to make the dress and there are around 29,208 drills in the tags.
Evie added: "We like the patterns that Missoni used because they were really striking and they catch the eye really easily."
Eva said they very lucky with the different colours that the material was available in. “There was a wide range of colours but they all came in one big bag so we had to separate every colour in it to put it in its right pairs."
They then separated the little sticks that came with the tags and individually drilled twelve holes into tag. Eva explained: “We have four for design purpose and then eight for the function of the dress to get it all together. We originally tried melting them and gluing them but really the only secure thing was just to stitch them together so that took a lot of time, a lot of needles lost.”
The dress also features two long swinging pieces of white plastic tags which Eva said gives the illusion when spinning that the pieces look like octopus tentacles.
The group was also very active on social media. Eva stated: “One of our TikTok's got half a million views. It was a transition into our dress before the photo shoot and another video got a hundred thousand views so we were kind of lucky with TikTok.”
In relation to challenges in creating the dress, the group highlighted that they started running out of a blue tags for the bottom of the dress while completing the garment. They also had to work to ensure the thread wouldn't unravel whilst stitching the tags together.
Evie said: “Trying to sew the white (tags) together was hard for me because I couldn't figure out how to sew it in a way that you can't see. You have to sew it from the inside so it's really awkward sometimes. She added that she once fell asleep with the dress in her hands whilst sewing the tags together.
EUROSPAR are the official supporters of the Irish team, which has ten designs ready to fly the flag for Ireland on the world stage in Salle des Princes in Monaco’s Grimaldi Forum. The spectacular live event will showcase sixty finalists from around the globe unveiling their ingenious, eco-friendly couture creations in a dazzling and high-energy showcase.
For more visit junkkouture.com/world-final-2023