Relove Fashion

We're off around the country delivering winners visible mending workshops, and how beautiful are these pocket repairs?

Congratulations to all of the fantastic ECO-UNESCO young environmental award participants and winners!

We were thrilled to see fashion (St Catherine's College Armagh, St Colm's Draperstown) and furniture (Balla Secondary school) reuse and upcycling feature in the winning projects for the waste category supported by the EPA Ireland. Special congratulations to St Catherine's College for winning the national junior category.

Clever upcycling also featured with the Local to Global award winner, Colaiste Treasa, in their "Light up Kolkata" project, upcycling used solar panels and jars.

Thank you ECO-UNESCO for the opportunity to celebrate all of the brilliant entries at the award ceremony earlier this week.

Thank you Sylvia Thompson for celebrating Relove Fashion in this weekend's The Irish Times magazine!

From curtains to table cloths, beading to applique, the Relove Fashion competition is a showcase of imaginative reuse. Its part of the wider and growing movement aimed at tackling our overconsumption of textiles, supported by EU and national policy, better design, and keeping clothes circulating for longer through repair and upcycling. (Special shout out to workshops at the Rediscovery Centre, Roscommon Women's Network - RWN and Change Clothes).

Registrations of interest are now open for Relove 2026/7: https://ow.ly/gSem50YYiKr

Read the article: https://ow.ly/A2J050YYiKq

Elżbieta Klonowska from St Louis Community School, Mayo County Council has taken home the National Overall Award for her upcycled outfit, Rock them, Madonna!

This outfit really stood out to the judges for the amount of work and repurposing in each element. From the harvested bra cups covered with shirt fabric, the layers of frills on the underskirt, and the hundreds of hand made tulle roses creating such dramatic designs features in the skirt and the bolero.

➡️➡️➡️ Read About the Award Winning Outfit

🧵 Inspiration & Sourcing 🧵

Elzbieta had a very clear vision for her entry this year, inspired by the style of Monster High’s Operetta doll, she was sure she wanted to create a rockabilly style dress with a rose underskirt and a strong twirl factor.

Elzbieta sourced items for her design from her local charity shop, her own wardrobe and home, as well as from Vinted.

🧵 Design & Creation🧵

The skirt of the dress is made from a jumpsuit and an old skirt of similar material. Elzbieta made a pattern based off another skirt, and cut the fabric into strips. She also patched some holes that were in the items (of course!).

Elzbieta harvested the cups from an old bra, and covered them with fabric harvested from an unwanted shirt. Using the boning from the bra for structure, she attached the cups to the top of a dress sourced from a charity shop, and created a signature two-tone bustier top, which she then attached to the skirt. She used fabric from the same shirt to sew a decorative strip along the bottom of the skirt, and when she didn’t have enough she filled the gap with an embroidered name tag as her logo.

The zip at the back of Elzbieta's dress was harvested from the same unwanted dress. She attached halterneck style straps using leftover fabric from the dress.

The petticoat was made from old curtains. Elzbieta cut the curtains into strips and sewed them together to create the base of the skirt. She then cut and gathered straight 13 strips and attached them as ruffles the petticoat to give more volume.

Elzbieta hand made over 400 tulle roses from second hand tulle skirts and fabric to create the design feature at the bottom of her petticoat, as well as her signature bolero. Lastly she dyed the petticoat a rose coloured pink and put it through the wash several times to test its durability.

See more photos of the outfit: https://www.relovefashion.ie/rock-them-madonna-mayo

Last year Elzbieta took home a regional prize, for Best Evening in Connaught-Ulster. Huge congratulations to her for her national win!

The National winners are on display at the Rediscovery Centre, pop in to see them in person!

St. Louis CS Mayo County Council

Brigh Harkin from Kerry County Council has taken home the National Award for Best Research for her upcycled outfit, Fite Fuaite! Brigh is pictured here with designer and NCAD lecturer, Orla Langan.

The judges were really impressed with Bríghs in-depth research and knowledge of the fashion industry, both its impacts environmentally and socially. They loved how she highlighted the interconnectedness of us all through our clothing, from where and how they are made, to where they end up, and represented this through her outfit.

➡️➡️➡️ Read About the Award-Winning Outfit

🧵 Inspiration & Sourcing 🧵

Brigh collected clothing passed down from her cousin that she had grown out of, including a black jumpsuit, a blue and white playsuit, a hat and a bag. She also gathered small fabric pieces from a scrap bag at home.

Brigh wanted to draw from the Irish phrase 'fite fuaite' - meaning intertwined or woven together, and decided to create a patchwork from mixed scrap pieces of fabric to represent this. She wanted to highlight all the people and environments connected through the fashion industry, from textile production and clothing manufacturing, to the people who buy and wear the clothes, and the people affected by where our clothes often end up in landfill.

🧵 Design & Creation 🧵

Brigh began by planning how she could make the jumpsuit fit her again. She made alterations like detaching the bodice from the legs and changing the shape of the bottom. This was done by inserting patchwork godets and lengthening them with panels harvested from the romper.

Brigh created the patchwork by cutting out small rectangle and square shapes from the scrap fabrics she collected and machine sewing them together to form larger pieces for the godets. The trousers are finished with a thin fabric trim around the waist that ties at the back, made from a harvested strip of fabric.

The outfit is accessorised with a bag and hat, also featuring patchwork details, made into long strips and sewn on to bring the whole outfit together.

See more photos of the outfit: https://www.relovefashion.ie/fite-fuaite-kerry

This is a second national win for Brigh, who last year took home the Overall prize for Relove Fashion. Huge congratulations to Brigh!

National College of Art & Design, Dublin Radio Kerry Kerry County Council Presentation Castleisland

Aoibhin Kocikowska, Wicklow County Council has taken home the National Award for Most Innovative for her upcycled outfit, Reverse Converse.

This outfit just wowed the judges! Who would have thought you could turn a pair of runners into a top? They were also very impressed with the transformation of a pair of tracksuit bottoms into a skort.

➡️➡️➡️ Read About the Award Winning Outfit

🧵 Inspiration & Sourcing🧵

The items used to create this outfit were sourced from local charity shops, as well as leftover fabric from a previous project, and her own old jewellery.

Aobhin was inspired by similar runner upcycles she had seen online, and decided to incorporate this technique using Converse into her outfit design.

🧵 Design & Creation 🧵

The skort (skirt with shorts underneath) is made from a pair of tracksuit bottoms with a coloured panel down the side. Aoibhin removed the waistband, cut strips from tracksuit, and sewed them together creating a layered patchwork, arranging the strips so that the blue panel creates a kind of brickwork pattern. She then made the top part of the tracksuit legs into shorts.

To create the top, she deconstructed the Converse. She made two long strips of blue lacing from a length of scrap fabric she had from a previous project. She created the straps and corset lacing at the back by sewing the strips to the front shoe and lacing it through the eyelets at the back. When she tried it on she realised it didn’t fit, so she made it bigger by adding a strip of fabric between the two shoes, harvested from the blue side panel of the tracksuit leg.

The bag was made by removing the front part of the sole from each shoe and inserting one shoe into the other before glueing it back together. The seam is covered by a piece of a belt with the buckle used to close the bag.

Such innovation! Many people have already tried to buy the bag at the Rediscovery Centre…
See more photos of the outfit: https://www.relovefashion.ie/reverse-converse-wicklow

Wicklow County Council Library Service Wicklow County Council My Waste Ireland

Alice Edge and Lilleah Stuart from Gort Community School, Galway County Council have taken home the National Award for Best Tailoring for their upcycled outfit, Back for The Future.

The Judges were incredibly impressed with the construction journey of this outfit, particularly the pattern drafting, the finishing, and the handmade cording and buttonholes.

➡️➡️➡️ Read About the Award Winning Outfit

🧵 Inspiration & Sourcing🧵

Created from items sourced in charity shops and a donation of unwanted fabric from a family friend, this outfit was inspired by the Victorian era, a time where women’s fashion became the site of political change, playing a major role in the suffragette movement. The trousers were inspired by women’s cycling britches, a design that allowed women to move about freely, rejecting the constricting corsets and crinolines of previous era’s. Using a pattern book from the 1890s as a reference, the group created their own patterns for both the ‘scrousers’ and the waistcoat, adapting them for a more modern, contemporary look.

🧵 Design & Creation 🧵

The two tone ‘scrousers’ featured a topstitched waistband, with handstitched buttonholes, and buttons salvaged from an unwanted shirt.

The waistcoat is lined with a beautiful owl fabric, salvaged from an unwanted dress, which is hand stitched to the outer fabric in a nod to Victorian construction techniques.

The button loops were handmade using a japanese lace making technique and create a beautiful design feature on the waistcoat. The shirt was customised with a band of the same fabric used for the waistcoat lining, appliqued to the collar.

Amazing work!

See more photos of the outfit: https://ow.ly/XSCs50YOVt0

Galway County Council Gort Community School My Waste Ireland

Alisha Kent, Sarah Morrissey and Grace Fallon from St. Mary's Secondary School, Wexford County Council have taken home the National Award for Best Eveningwear for their upcycled outfit, Tides In Bloom.

The judges thought this was such a unique and beautiful outfit, they were really impressed with the design and repurposing of the wedding dress into the statement skirt, and the ombre frills on the inside matching the flowers added to the top.

➡️➡️➡️ Read About the Award Winning Outfit

🧵 Inspiration & Sourcing🧵

This group began by gathering unwearable clothes, with rips or stains, from home. After deciding on a theme inspired by the ocean, the group also visited their local charity shop to collect more blue materials they could use. The outfit combines elements from a wedding dress, blue polo shirt, light blue top, light blue dress, white top and navy jeans and is styled with embellished sandals, a handmade headband accessory and bag.

🧵 Design & Creation 🧵

For the blue ombre design on the inside of the skirt, the group created long panels from the clothes they collected and used a gathering technique to create the ruffled effect.

They group created fabric flowers from small pieces, and carefully arranged them across a preloved top, mimicking the ombre effect of the skirt, while also strategically covering a stain on the top.

For the skirt, the group deconstructed a wedding dress, harvesting the bodice to be used for other elements, including the bag. They altered the front to beautifully reveal the blue ombre layers inside.

Scraps from cutting out the flower pieces were used to create embellishments for the sandals and headband - which also uses harvested blue fabric. The bag was made using the harvested bodice piece from the wedding dress, and included the zip, taken from jeans. To finish off the look, beads harvested from the wedding dress were hand sewn onto the headband, and to create a matching necklace and two bracelets.

See more photos of the outfit: https://www.relovefashion.ie/tides-in-bloom-wexford

Lorraine Keane Wexford County Council St.Mary's Secondary School, New Ross.

Cara McLaughlin from Spraoi agus Sport, Donegal County Council has taken home - for the second year in a row - the National Award for Best Casual outfit!

The judges loved the look and style of this outfit, they were particularly impressed with the tailoring and the finishing throughout, especially the two-tone halterneck top and the reversible hat. They loved the flowers crafted from unwanted zips, and how Cara brought the colours of her grandfather's shirts into her crocheted bag.

This is the second year that young Cara has taken home the National Best Casual Award, huge congratulations are in order!

➡️➡️➡️ Read About the Award Winning Outfit

🧵 Inspiration & Sourcing🧵

Inspired by the pastel colours of the shirts donated to her by her grandfather, Cara created this stunning summer outfit from the shirts, a pair of old jeans, a pillow case, unwanted zips and balls of leftover wool.

🧵 Design & Creation🧵

The shorts are handmade from unwanted jeans, and decorated with machine embroidery, appliques stars, and detachable flowers from old zips to add some flower power to the front of the jeans.

The top was made using a vintage pattern, helping Cara to make this top from two of her grandfather's shirts.

The bag is crocheted from leftover wool, lined with one of her grandfather’s shirts, and the straps are made from the button placates of the shirts on the inside, with zips sewn to the outside to create a unique design feature.

To finish off the outfit, Cara made a reversible bucket hat from the legs of the jeans and an old pillowcase. The hat is embellished with the same decorative leaf stitching, and she added a detachable zip flower to tie the outfit together. feature in the other elements of her outfit. Last but not least, leftover fabric was used to create a beautiful scrunchie for the hair.

See more photos of the outfit: https://www.relovefashion.ie/summertime-donegal

Donegal County Council Spraoi agus Spórt Síoraí Charity Retail Ireland