JUNK KOUTOUR WORLD FINALIST 2026

Emmanuelle and Alix advance to the global stage with their couture piece 'Bride Unbuilt' — a powerful statement on sustainability and gender equality, crafted from the school's own renovation waste.

We are incredibly proud to announce that ICS Paris students Emmanuelle Yap and Alix Nicolas Grau, alongside their Visual Arts teacher Lucie De Saint, have been named World Finalists in the Junk Kouture competition. This achievement is a testament to their extraordinary creativity, their commitment to sustainability, and their shared belief that fashion can carry a message as powerful as it is beautiful.

Junk Kouture is a global platform that challenges young designers to transform everyday waste into wearable haute couture. To be named a World Finalist is to be recognised among the most innovative young creative minds from across the globe — and today, that honour belongs to ICS Paris.

"Waste not as a limitation, but as a medium — this is the philosophy they made real."

Their entry, Bride Unbuilt, is far more than a garment. The piece confronts the reality of forced and child marriage, drawing on two United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

SDG 5 — Gender equality

SDG 12 — Responsible consumption

The traditional bridal silhouette — symbol of celebration and personal choice — is deliberately deconstructed and reimagined as something fragile, unfinished, and imposed. Rendered entirely in white and grey (the colour of both a wedding gown and a construction site), the piece is haunting in its clarity. The title carries a double meaning: a bride who was never given the chance to choose, and a structure still capable of change.

What makes the work especially remarkable is where its materials came from. With ICS Paris undergoing building renovations, Emmanuelle and Alix saw not a disruption but an opportunity. Construction tarps and plastic bags salvaged from the building site were cleaned, cut, and shaped into the gown's sweeping skirt and voluminous bodice — material ordinarily destined for landfill, transformed into something that catches light and moves with quiet grace.

The project was guided by Ms Lucie De Saint, who approached the collaboration with genuine openness — having never previously sewn, she began at exactly the same level as her students. In doing so, she modelled something valuable: that curiosity, resourcefulness, and structured experimentation matter more than prior expertise. The creative team researched, failed, adapted, and built something entirely new together.