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Tuesday 21st March marked the 10th anniversary of CLC’s Upcycled Fashion Show. A record number of students participated and we saw over 50 outfits modelled by students from LC1 to SFC1 (Years 7 to 12).

The competition showcases the incredible ingenuity and creative vision of our students. 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: popcorn wrappers, sheet music and calendars became glorious skirts; ring pulls and coffee pods were linked together to create shimmering, fluid ‘fabrics’; broken umbrellas, deflated balloons, abandoned Lego bricks, and even a discarded bin were transformed into glamorous gowns and themed accessories, ranging from headpieces and handbags to bouquets and swords! A wide variety of personal styles were in evidence: tired towels and pillowcases, old velvet trousers and pieces of school uniform were transformed through clever cutting and stitching into two wildly different yet equally impressive outfits – one a Chinese twist on the ‘little black dress’, and the other a punk outfit inspired by the late designer Dame Vivian Westwood.

LC3 (Year 9) Textiles students also showcased their recent classwork, presenting over 20 upcycled men’s work shirts which they had skilfully transformed into a collection of very stylish and unique garments including summery dresses and cleverly tailored tops and skirts.

The atmosphere was wonderful. The large and supportive audience clapped and cheered throughout, with the House Trashion entries, unsurprisingly, receiving the loudest screams! All the models presented their garments with real confidence, personality and flair, thanks to them having attended a Runway Workshop led by professional dancer and voguer Patrick Ziza.

The judges had some incredibly difficult decisions to make. We were very fortunate to secure a Guild member, Jessica Saunders (Director of Programmes at the London College of Fashion) as our lead judge. Jessica kindly spent the day at CLC talking to students about her research into the future sustainability of e-textiles and highlighting the fascinating and surprising connections between fashion, science, engineering and technology.

The winners of the Trashion category were Ashley and Hope (UC4 / Year 10), who created a stunning pair of silver trousers from crisp wrappers and a futuristic cardboard corset. Not only did they demonstrate expert engineering skills, they had spent months collecting and washing those crisp packets. The Upcycling category was won by Bea and Cynthia (UC4 / Year 10), who repurposed several pairs of old jeans into a show-stopping three-piece denim ensemble that included a cropped jacket and maxi skirt. The complexity and quality were incredible and the girls even drafted all their own pattern pieces for all three of their garments.

St Helen’s were this year’s winner of the House Trashion category. Their beautiful corset top, made from can ring pulls, really impressed the judges, one of whom is the manager of FoodLoose, a packaging-free shop located in central Cheltenham. We are delighted that St Helen’s have agreed to loan their outfit to the shop: it will be on display at FoodLoose for the next four weeks.

Huge congratulations to everyone who participated in this year’s competition – I can’t wait to see what comes down the runway next year.

Miss Brandon, Teacher of Engineering, Enterprise and Technology