News and Social Media

Our annual Upcycled Fashion Show took place on Thursday 12th March. We saw nearly 50 outfits made and modelled by students from LC1 to SFC2.

The competition showcases the incredible ingenuity and creative vision of our students, and the outcomes reflect many hours of hard work, careful planning, persistent problem-solving and productive collaboration.

We saw imaginative and inspired use of a huge range of unwanted items: bin bags, bed sheets, shower curtains and manuscript paper became voluminous skirts. Carefully engineered corsets were made from aluminium food trays, papier mâché and plaited plastic bags. Newspaper, cellophane, bubble wrap and noodle pots were cleverly manipulated to become stylish garments with striking forms. Old jeans were converted into stylish jackets and maxi skirts, and unwanted curtain fabric was transformed into red-carpet evening gowns.

There were innovative accessories, including newspaper wings, a coat-hanger crown, a superb, gigantic jelly-fish hat, and even a giant lax-stick-lollipop! Hundreds of items had been carefully collected within Houses or by families in advance, including sweet wrappers, CDs, laundry bags and crisp packets. Some houses had spent weeks making hundreds of tiny paper flowers and origami stars to add to their garments: this showed incredible planning!

This year’s House entries really demonstrated the power and value of teamwork. Several houses used their entries to communicate the strong sense of family and belonging that exists within the house community, whilst others used their garments to highlight sustainability issues such as ocean pollution.

LC3 Textiles students also showcased their recent classwork, presenting 21 upcycled men’s work shirts which they had transformed, by working in pairs, into a collection of very stylish and unique garments, including summery dresses, fitted tops and pleated skirts. The girls were tasked with creating a wearable, durable garment, with the added challenge to think inventively about how to utilise existing components. They used a combination of imagination and skilful manipulation to repurpose collars and cuffs into waistbands and belts, to reconfigure armholes and sleeves, to reverse shirts from front to back and in some cases, to turn them upside down and inside out!

The atmosphere in the PH was wonderful: the enthusiastic audience clapped, cheered and sometimes screamed as each model appeared, amazed by what they were seeing! All the models presented their garments with incredible confidence, personality and flair.

The judges had incredibly difficult decisions to make. We were very fortunate to secure Andy Ginn (CEO of the JCA London Fashion Academy), Anita Griffin (a former Textiles Product Developer) and Lisa Jarvis from Longfield Hospice (one of our College Charities) as our judges. They were ably assisted by SFC2 student Bea, a former UK Young Fashion Designer and champion upcycler!

The winner of the Trashion category was Tosin (UC5), who created a stunning, colourful jacket and silver dress from over 250 items of food packaging! Both garments were executed to perfection, but what truly elevated the outfit was when the jacket was unfurled on stage to transform into a dramatic train for the dress!

The Upcycling category was won by Penny (UC4), who presented us with an entire, cohesive ensemble of garments and accessories. Her ruffled skirt, made from shirts, was inspired by Penny’s love of Vivienne Westwood’s designs. This was accompanied by a bustier made from zips, upcycled Crocs, and a headpiece and bag, both encrusted with buttons.

Farnley Lodge were the worthy winners of this year’s House Trashion category. They used a combination of bin bags, newspaper and blue snack packets, which they skilfully manipulated to incredible effect to create a very impactful dress, accompanied by a jaunty cardboard top hat! We are delighted that four of the House Trashion outfits are now on display in the local Longfield charity shop (on Bath Road) – please do go and take a look if you can.