A dress made of dreams, ideas and waste materials. But above all, of a great message: fashion can be sustainable, innovative and capable of telling the world . The students of the Istituto Comprensivo di Monserrato return to challenge the best emerging designers on the planet by participating for the second time in Junk Kouture, the largest international sustainable fashion competition for young people.
The appointment is for Thursday 27 February at 5 pm, in the municipal gym of Comparto 8 in Monserrato, where the 17 dresses made by the secondary school students will be revealed .
Some have transformed polluting plastic into a suffocated sea, where jellyfish lose their light, and some have given shape to the drama of digital pollution, a symbol of humanity increasingly dependent on technology. Other students have instead chosen to represent violence against women with a red wound that crosses a destroyed body , while the theme of diversity comes to life with 600 paper flowers, all different, but perfectly harmonious with each other.
Art takes center stage with a dress inspired by Picasso's Guernica and another that recalls Magritte to celebrate gender equality . The climate crisis is denounced with creations that evoke the melting of glaciers and the extinction of bees, while technology merges with fashion in the creation of a dress capable of resisting high temperatures, thanks to a system of electrical cables that recall blood vessels.
The Monserratina school's journey in Junk Kouture began last year and took the students to the world final in Monaco , where they competed with design institutes and art schools from all over the world. A unique experience, which encouraged the team of teachers and students to relaunch the challenge.
"We decided to try again because it was an incredibly formative experience," explains Carla Vargiu, project manager. "This year we expanded our collaboration with the local area, involving professional hairdressers and make-up artists to train models."
Now the goal is to pass the national selection, in which 60 designs will be chosen, and win one of the 10 places available for the world final .
Lisa Valentina Cao, school principal, underlines the value of this adventure: «Creativity, participation and teamwork have allowed us to achieve extraordinary results. We are proud of these kids, who demonstrate how art and fashion can become tools of awareness and change».
