The finals will be in October 2023 in London, UK
The world is going green thanks to eco-conscious students around the world, including right here in the UAE.
And because of their environmental awareness and design acumen, three eco-conscious Grade 8 students at Swiss International School Dubai have only gone and secured a place at the ‘Junk Kouture’ World Finals, which will take place in the UK capital, London.
Junk Kouture, a platform for youth creative expression, offers a trailblazing fashion design competition combining teenage creativity with environmental sustainability, with the first ever World Final taking place in Abu Dhabi in 2022.
And after designing and making a sustainable dress from used sweet wrappers and plastic food packaging waste, this year Violette, Sacha, and Mia, (aged 13 and 14 years old) will be heading to the Junk Kouture World Finals in London, the UK, in October to present their unique dress design, ‘Candylicious’.
What makes this news particularly MORE exciting is that it is the first time ever for both the eco-conscious trio and the award-winning IB curriculum boarding school have entered the Junk Kouture competition, which is an annual, global recycled fashion competition that challenges students to design, create and model high-end couture made from recycled materials.
While sustainable fashion is all the rage, designers are going above and beyond to create the best sustainable pieces to hop on to the trend as well as give back to the planet.
But who says only designers can do ethical fashion?
Junk Kouture takes in elements of fashion, design, engineering and environmental sustainability, encouraging young people to create striking works of recycled couture that wouldn’t look out of place on the world’s most famous runways.
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Speaking about heading to the finals, Violette said: “We chose a colourful, bright design to convey the impact of pollution nowadays, especially plastic and trash going into landfill. Food industries produce so many packaged foods every day, and all those wrappers can harm the environment. This is why we ended up using food packaging as our main material.”
Students are busy at the best of times and despite facing many challenges, from organising their time, working as a team and making important decisions, the trio still succeeded with perseverance.
“Our hat design changed three times before we chose our final idea,” says Sacha. “We spent the most time on the skirt as it is a big part of our dress.”
The trio divided the work among themselves, with Violette working on the skirt, sewing and making the train. Mia created the top, using materials such as popsicle sticks and wrappers, creating a unique design to go with the skirt, while Sacha created the hat, producing a sturdy base to then build an ice cream cone on.
The outfit, once complete, was then presented at the regional competition, held in Abu Dhabi. Mia modelled the outfit, to the tune Crazy in Love by Beyonce.
Sacha experimented with makeup to create a fun and unique look to complement the outfit.
Art teacher Teresa Pollard, said: “I am delighted our design has gone through to the Junk Kouture World Final in London. Only ten designs were selected from the UAE, and with more than 40 design entries in the Abu Dhabi City Final, it is a great achievement for the team and for the school.”
The girls say they were lucky to be allowed to work on the project during school hours, and to be able to take advantage of the Al Jadaf-based school’s art tools, such as hot glue guns, sewing machines and mannequins.
“Now we have found out we got accepted to the world finals in London, we are so excited and grateful we made it this far,” says Mia. “Candylicious can’t wait to present our colourful dress, and hopefully inspire people, while raising awareness of the amount of waste we produce.”
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