Rosie rises to the challenge
12/10/2007
Irish textile design student, Rosie O'Reilly, has scooped the international prize in an essay competition set by the organisers of the RITE Group conference in London this week.
Twenty-five students from universities around the world attended thanks to sponsorship from the Society of Dyers and Colourists. Those interested in attending were asked to submit a 1,000-word essay on the subject of a sustainable future for textiles, starting with the line: "If I ruled the world … ".
Ms O'Reilly is a student at Trinity College, Dublin, and a part-time worker at the Irish capital's Cultivate Centre, a "sustainable living and learning centre" that aims to promote "healthy, balanced and creative cultural change" in the way people live.
Her winning essay focused on the subject of biomimetics in textiles, and her prize, in addition to a place at the conference, was a fully funded trip to London, including flights and two nights in the venue hotel, the Park Lane Hilton in Mayfair.
She told sportstextiles.com afterwards that she was delighted to have won and that she hoped to do more work on biomimetics.
The Society of Dyers and Colourists also offered a £500 prize for UK-based students, which Joanne Westwood of University College, Falmouth, won.
The society's president, Adrian Abel, said on presenting the two winners with a commemorative certificate that he had been impressed by the numbers of students that had taken part and by the ideas they had presented. He accepted that some of the textile industry's environmental challenges came directly from dyeing and colouring practices, but said his society's members were sure they had an important role to play in making the industry more sustainable.
"This exercise shows that we are making an impact," he commented. "We are getting people to think in a different way."
Share this story:
