BUBBLE WRAP, dried potato slices, elastics and cotton wool don't often make it to the catwalk in major quantities, but they did on Wednesday night. The Irish finals of the Smirnoff International Fashion Awards in a marquee at Dublin Castle brought not only new fashion materials but fresh talent to centre stage.
The designs ranged from glow in the dark white dance wear for men by Danny Kearns of NCAD, to papier mache skirts shown with painterly smocks by independent student Adele Cunniffe (second prize winner). The winner, Alan Kelly, whose outsized multi media ballgowns owed, well, something to Vivienne Westwood, will compete against other international winners in Toronto for a $40,000 prize.
After student Ciara McCardle's superbly produced and choreographed show Wayne Hemingway, the genius behind Red Or Dead, previewed his current collection. He was joined by fellow judges Deirdre Kelly, the managing director of A Wear and fashion director of Brown Thomas, Head to Toe's Mary McLaughlin, designer Marc O'Neill (himself a past contestant), journalist turned scriptwriter Kathleen O'Callaghan, last year's winner Ngan Ling Kwok and photographer Perry Ogden.
Ogden, who is shooting a major feature on interesting Irish faces for the American rag trade bible was suitably impressed by the calibre of the show. So much so, in fact, that he will be using one of the amateur Smirnoff models, Trinity student Vicki Cahill (who wore the most dramatic of the winning creations), for one of the portraits. Talk about going straight to the top.