Cork designer shines on world stage
Grace Sweeney
A 20 year old designer from Cork city is on a mission to show women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) that they can be both smart and stylish.
Sarah Lane designed an outfit called Lady Equilateral created using used fruit and vegetable nets and toothbrushes which featured in the opening ceremony of the world’s largest gathering of future leaders, The One Young World Summit.
The global summit took place in Belfast from 2 to 5 October and saw delegates from 190 countries and over 250 organisations to confront the challenges facing humanity.
At the summit’s opening ceremony, Sarah’s design was showcased as part of an empowering short film produced by Junk Kouture and Deloitte.
The short film is a plea from Gen Z to the older generations to hear their voices in the concern over climate change, resonating with the One Young World Summit’s five challenges facing humanity.
Sarah’s creation draws inspiration from one of the challenges discussed at the summit - education.
“Lady Equilateral is all about women in STEM, both in STEM education and STEM careers,” explained Sarah.
“My design aims to empower women in STEM and show they can be both smart and stylish. As a woman in STEM myself, this is something that I’m particularly passionate about and I love being able to use my design and my creativity – through Junk Kouture – to spread this message.”
The designs are shown in the film alongside backdrops of wild rugged coastlines and buzzing city landscapes, showcasing the beauty and history of Northern Ireland.
Sarah was thrilled when asked to be a part of the video and was delighted to be given the opportunity to surround herself with so many future leaders.
She said: “These young people are the present and the future. To be surrounded by all these innovators and changemakers and just so much potential was really incredible and that is what I enjoyed most about this One Young World Summit.”
Her creation Lady Equilateral is an outfit given life by the crocheting of wasted fruit and vegetable nets and toothbrushes, aiming to help raise awareness of the importance of science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) education for all.
Made entirely of equilateral triangles, the coat in Sarah’s design represents equality in education and the workplace while the red dress uses a variety of techniques to manipulate old t-shirts and net bags from fruit and veg.
The Cork designer created the gold coat of her design from almost 200 toothbrush handles that she collected from engagement centre CALMAST (Centre for the Advancement of Learning of Maths, Science and Technology) after Engineers Week.
Sarah explained that “the femininity of the dress and crochet flowers contrasts with the strong, angular coat, showing that strength and beauty are not mutually exclusive”.
This year’s One Young World Summit was recognised by the City of Belfast and the UK Government as part of the official functions to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. To find out more about this year’s One Young World Summit at www.oneyoungworld.com/summit-2023 or Junk Kouture at www.junkkouture.com.