Knocklyon students step out in real Victorian style with recycled bottle-tops

By Mary Dennehy

THE fashion of the Victorian era has been revived by two Knocklyon teenagers, who have recycled various materials, including 2,000 bottle tops, to create a Victorian-inspired, vintage dress – an outfit which has reached the regional finals of the Junk Kouture competition.

Transition-year students in St Colmcille’s Community School, Niamh O’Brien (15) and Murron Martin (16) have made it to the regional finals of the Bank of Ireland Junk Kouture recycled fashion competition, which inspires young people to design and manufacture an outfit out of recycled goods destined for the bin.

The savvy duo designed a Victorian-style dress for the competition, refashioning old wire hangers and wooden floor underlay for the underskirt, which was then covered with an old tutu.

Niamh told The Echo: “We collected non-alcoholic bottle tops from local pubs every Monday and Thursday for a number of weeks.

“To make the dress, we sourced second-hand mat-erial in a charity shop.

“We drilled a hole in each of bottle tops and sewed them onto the dress by hand. There were over 2,000 bottle tops in total!

“We made the collar using lace from an old dress. For the shoes, we lined a pair of boots that we got from a charity shop with a pair of old socks, which we trimmed to meet the design. We then sewed black bottle tops onto the socks to replicate buttons.”

Inspired by the 2,000 bottle tops, Mairead and Murron named their creation, Quenched Victorian – which now needs the public’s vote to make it through the regional heats and onto the final.

According to Murron: “We have put our heart and soul into this competition and feel that it is a labour of love.

“Both of our families have been involved in the process, we collected our materials from local businesses and our pictures for the application were taken in the local Marley Park.

“Up until now we have felt that this is a community-oriented project and with your help we can have our local community supporting us as we try to reach the grand final.”

Alongside Personal prizes, the winning entry will net €2,500 for their school and a Junk Kouture trophy.

The public vote counts for 10 per cent of the result, and to vote for Mairead and Murron, who were supported by their art teacher Ms Walsh visit the Bank of Ireland Junk Kouture Facebook page by this Friday, February 24.

Visit www.boijunkkouture.com for more.