Caoimhe Kenny – Portobello Fashion Graduate Joins Junk Kouture As It Goes Global
Fashion Buying and Merchandising and Fashion Management
Business of Fashion
Portobello Institute Business of Fashion graduates go on to work in many exciting roles from fashion buyers to merchandisers to entrepreneurs with their own fashion brands and stylists.
Graduate of our Fashion Buying and Merchandising and Fashion Management courses, Caoimhe Kenny, has carved out an exciting role on the partnerships team at Junk Kouture.
Junk Kouture is a recycled fashion creative competition for 13 – 18-year-olds that started in Ireland over 10 years ago.
The competition provides a platform that showcases work from post-primary school students making creative designs using recycled materials. Read more from the founder of Junk Kouture here.
Portobello Institute graduate, Caoimhe Kenny is making waves in her role as Territory Manager at Junk Kouture, a role she started not long after completing her qualifications.
“My role involves getting sponsorship and organising events to promote Junk Kouture.
“We have been organising events for Culture Night, for designs to be at prominent locations all around Ireland to promote the creative youth in the local areas and Junk Kouture itself.
“We are currently going global moving into the UAE, France, the UK and New York so it is very busy. We are trying to get schools to sign up for Junk Kouture from these areas and from Ireland as well,” she said.
Caoimhe is excited about all the opportunities her new role is bringing, and she is putting the business skills she learned at Portobello to excellent use.
“Even if you are doing fashion buying and merchandising there are so many other possibilities of the type of work you can do in fashion, I’m still within everything I learned and a lot of what I learned does relay into what I am doing with Junk Kouture.
“I found something that is related to fashion and business.
“The second year was a lot more business-focused that put things into perspective for me that it is fashion I want to do but at the same time everything is business, everything revolves around business and sales,” she said.
Troy Armour is the CEO of Junk Kouture.
“I was very impressed with Caoimhe I have to say. She has got a great attitude and she loves a good challenge and going after it. It’s great to hire somebody that came out of Portobello.
“She brought those pitching and presentation skills needed for our sales and sponsorships from Portobello and she has the merchandising skills to help us build out that range based on the experience she has on what things are coming in the fashion world, what’s fresh, up to date, progressive and sustainable.
“For us, it has to be sustainable, sustainable fabrics, sustainable clothing so there is a real emphasis on that,” he said.
Sustainability is a hot topic in the fashion industry and in most industries at the moment. Caoimhe said the Fashion Management course in Portobello ignited a passion in her for sustainable fashion.
“I did particularly develop a passion for sustainable fashion last year because we focused on that and to be able to translate the knowledge that I have and learned and be able to put that into Junk Kouture where they have such a good understanding of sustainable fashion is amazing, and I am really looking forward to seeing where it goes and how big it gets,” she said.
Looking forward to the future of Junk Kouture, Caoimhe is excited to see where it can go and how schools and young people in other countries rise to the challenge.
“There are people who have never heard of Junk Kouture in the UAE and New York, and seeing them being so in love with the idea and really warming to it and feeling passionate about it is amazing, I feel proud to work for a company that is so focused on spreading the message of sustainability.
“It is really exciting because we are aware of it in Ireland but now it’s branching out to new places, and we are going to see a whole new level of creativity and ideas.
“It’s going to be so interesting to see how each different place adapts to what they see Junk Kouture as and what designs they bring to the table.
“It’s really fun too, it is work at the end of the day, but I am still being involved with fashion and I am learning things that I never thought I would have the opportunity to learn and work with people who have years of experience in many different things,” she said.
Find Out More
At Portobello Institute we have a number of business of fashion undergraduate degrees and post-graduate opportunities. These qualifications are awarded by London Metropolitan University and offer you direct paths into careers combining fashion with business.
Portobello Institute offers Fashion Buying & Merchandising – QQI Level 5, BA (Hons) Fashion Management, BA (Hons) Fashion Buying & Merchandising, Postgraduate Cert Fashion Buying & Merchandising and Postgraduate Cert Fashion Management.
If you are interested in any of our fashion courses or have any questions you can book a consultation call with our expert fashion advisor Sarah Coyne, email [email protected] or call 01 892 0041.
