A LETTERKENNY student designer’s inspired work featured prominently at the world’s largest gathering of future leaders in Belfast.
The One Young World Summit, which ran from October 2 to October 5, brought together delegates from over 190 countries and more than 250 organisations to confront the biggest challenges facing humanity and accelerate social impact.
On the Wednesday and Thursday of the Summit, Lara-Jane Doherty’s work ‘Wicked Westwood’ featured prominently at Deloitte’s exhibition stand.
Lara-Jane, from Buncrana, is currently studying at Letterkenny Atlantic Technoligical University (ATU), made ‘Wicked Westwood’ four years ago at the age of 16 and explains the work, which includes unused synthetic hair and upcycled pillowcases, was inspired by Vivienne Westwood.
She said feminist and activist Vivienne Westwood inspired her piece.
“This piece was driven by my love of fashion design and inspired by the powerful activist and feminist Vivienne Westwood who challenged fashion and political norms,” says Lara-Jane.
“The idea of a witch came to mind for this outfit as they are often looked at as powerful female figures.
“I always adored Vivienne Westwood’s legacy and what she stood for so I designed this to celebrate her iconic punk rock and feminine style, old unused synthetic hair, up-cycled pillowcases, blinds, old chains and a football are a few of the many materials used to create this look.
“I wanted to stay away from costume ideas and make a haute couture inspired garment.”
Founded in Ireland and now in six countries, Junk Kouture aims to empower its community all over the world through a creative platform.
Its vision is to help enrich and empower the lives of young people through creativity and sustainability. It challenges young people to design and create show stopping fashion from materials usually regarded as waste.
At the summit’s opening ceremony a short film featuring the work of several Gen Z Junk Kouture designers premiered.
It is a passioned plea from the designers to the generations that came before, to hear their voices in the concern over climate change.
All while resonating with the five plenary challenges for the 2023 One Young World Summit.
Having the chance to have her worked featured on the exhibition stand is something Lara-Jane is incredibly proud of and something she admits she “immediately” said yes to when asked.
Her work will be displayed in front of over 2,000 delegates and a star-studded line up of One Young World counsellors including Oscar winner James Martin, Rugby World Cup winning captain Francois Pienaar and British-Iranian journalist and author Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
This year’s One Young World Summit has been recognised by both the City of Belfast and the UK Government as being part of the official functions to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
The extensive list of counsellors also included a number of local political figures with experience of peace building including Bertie Ahern, former Irish Taoiseach and an architect of the Good Friday Agreement.
Lara-Jane was delighted her work had the opportunity to inspire young people and is hopeful it will have fostered discussion around the importance of sustainability.
She says: “I am very grateful to have had this opportunity to display my work that I made when I was 16, four years ago as it shows how tight a community Junk Kouture is and how my work gets to inspire young people to get involved or open to the idea surrounding sustainability.
“I was excited get everyone talking about how amazing Junk Kouture is and I hope my journey with them encourages others to take part as well.”
To find out more about this year’s One Young World Summit visit www.oneyoungworld.com/summit-2023or to find out more about Junk Kouture visit www.junkkouture.com
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