Junk Kouture

Junk Kouture is a platform for youth creative expression, that challenges students in second level education to create wearable fashion out of 100% recycled materials. Our goal is to enrich and empower the lives of young people through creativity and sustainability, creating the circular engineers of tomorrow - young people who view waste as not aways something that has to be discarded, but that can be given a new life too. We provide educational resources to help get the programme up and running in schools as well as masterclasses on YouTube to demonstrate to the students how they can manipulate recycled materials using techniques to turn them into something beautiful. Once they have their design created, students submit their creation onto the Junk Kouture app where they are then judged by a celebrity panel ahead of the live events that take place in the summer. Founded in Ireland in 2010 by tech entrepreneur, and CEO of Junk Kouture, Troy Armour, the competition has recruited 100,000 participants to date, 15,000 Kouture designs made and 40,000kg of waste saved from landfill. Now, in 2021, Junk Kouture has launched in five of the world’s most dynamic cities: New York, London, Abu Dhabi, Milan and Paris. We also have goal of reaching 13 cities by the end of 2023, and a 10-year goal of impacting the lives of 1billion young people across the globe by 2032. With over 800 schools actively participating in the programme, the message of Junk Kouture is already spreading rapidly and the World Tour will allow it to expand even further, giving more young people the chance to express their creativity and impact climate change, no matter where they live or where they come from.