Meet the finalists of the Elle Rising Star Design Award

This year's judging panel: ELLE's Jackie Burger and Poppy Evans, Christiaan du Toit of Klûk CGdT, Amber Jones and Joanne Frédéric from Mr Price, blogger Malibongwe Tyilo and 2012 Rising Star winner Jane Elizabeth Kotze. Find out more about our judges here.

The judging (all six hours of it) took place at The Westin Cape Town (yes, this is where the Rising Star Design Award evening will take place and the winner will be announced).

The eight finalists:

Jacqueline le Grange

@J_le_Grange

"Petrichor is the familiar scent of rain on earth. A love story inspired by the Company Rose Gardens and Adderley Street's illustrious Flower Market in Cape Town. My concept is based on the enchanted romance of a young woman, a complete and hopeless romantic motivated by nature and its significant beauty. This collection aims to bring out characteristics of hope, joy and enchantment with a touch of vibrant sophistication. It is a modern take on the traditional quilting and floral print concept for the young at heart, sophisticated and modern woman who still believes in fairy-tale romance."

Lukhanyo Mdingi

@LukMdingi

"The concept for my range was basic. I wanted to use primary shapes and aesthetics by incorporating them into my range. I wanted to create clean minimalist looks that are not seen as inadequate and bland, but that are distinct, powerful and have a natural flow and relation to one another. I love to use clean lines and staple garments that at the same time use the human body and treat fabric choices as an illusion. I tried to create elements of fabrication, minimalism and the natural human body and silhouette in my storyboard."

Julia Mpoko

@kimberleempk

"My debut collection, Julienne, is a reflection of my heritage, background and stories from the fishing village in the Congo where my father comes from, Boyeka. I wanted to introduce a different kind of "African print" by drawing inspiration from the beauty and simplicity of the village. With embroidery being a key detail of many Western and Central African traditional attire, the collection uses it together with beading on feminine, polished silhouettes."

Nicholas Coutts

@nicholascoutts

"'My collection embraces luxe textures in combination with simple silhouettes. It's about contrast in direct opposites. The fabrication and effortless comfort exudes timeless elegance."

Elli-Nicole Sazeides

@elli_Nicole

"My collection focused on combining an easy sense of luxe with strong but wearable silhouettes. I am exploring interesting prints and detailed pattern work while maintaining the core principle of my style, which is to balance luxe and elegance with minimalism and edge."

Valerie Britz

@blue_edie

"For this range I decided to combine my love of fashion with elements of surrealism. I love the idea that fashion is a world of dress-up and make believe, and that's something I wanted to communicate. I used clouds as my main inspiration and as a motif throughout the range. The range has a dreamlike quality, which I achieved by using soft, harmonious colours. The clothes are unconventional yet wearable - it was important for me to strike the perfect balance between the two."

Mieke Vermeulen

@miekemode

"I recently read a book that predicted that Afrikaners will embark on a journey to the south of Ethiopia where they will settle near a river. I was intrigued and imagined "The Great Trek II" and what the Neo-Voortrekker would wear. The high-end ready-to-wear garments touch on the related unexplored sentiments, unease and belonging. I discovered similarities between the Voortrekkers of old and today's young South African women in terms of uncertainties about the future, embarking on a new adventure and being fearless. The silhouettes with an ethereal and drifting mood mimic traditional garments, with futuristic elements."

Jenevieve Lyons

@jenevieve_lyons

"Papyrus communicates as an eight-piece collection based on the re-appropriation of religious symbols within fashion. The collection took inspiration from religious symbols other than the usual and expected. For the main inspiration there were pages from the Bible, monastic culture as well as catholic nuns' attire. The collection plays with these symbols through the use of proportions, for example long and short, sheer and solid, hard and soft. This concept was exaggerated with the fabric that I developed myself, a dry rubber-cast, cracked-paint fabric. The collection is called Papyrus as the word Bible was originally a diminutive of biblos 'papyrus, scroll' and is of Semitic origin."

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