Designs from the next darlings of Australian fashion will grace the catwalks at this month's Melbourne Fashion Festival.
There are eight designers nominated for the Tiffany & Co National Designer Award, with the winner (or winners) scoring $10,000 and a trip to New York.
But it's not just about the prize: being crowned the national designer of the year opens other doors.
The 2013 winners, Tim and Alex Britten-Finschi from menswear label From Britten, were one of only six designers invited to show at the Milano Unica textile fair last September.
Christopher Esber, who won in 2012, was one of only five finalists in the 2013/2014 International Woolmark Prize in Milan in February.
Despite having very different aesthetics, the National Design Award finalists have two common threads: talent and a passion to achieve excellence.
Here is your guide to the rising stars of Australian fashion:
LABEL: Strateas.Carlucci (Vic)
DESIGNERS: Mario-Luca Carlucci and Peter Strateas
LOOK: Sleek, tailored
Stocked across Europe, the United States, Asia and the Middle East, Mario-Luca Carlucci and Peter Strateas have been showing their collections to buyers in Paris since 2012.
"Our aesthetic and design approach was a little bit more European, so we thought that we'd try there first," Carlucci says.
The pair will show their fourth collection called Pyrite at the Melbourne Fashion Festival.
Pyrite is a natural mineral usually found in cubic clusters.
"We have taken that idea of form within form and building that around the human body, so it's quite sculptural and architectural," Carlucci says.
Both the men's and women's Pyrite collections feature tailored pants, jackets, cropped jackets and luxurious overcoats. Black, grey and white dominate.
Carlucci and Strateas will return to Paris before the Melbourne Fashion Festival to launch their winter 2015 collection, Fracture.
They hope to one day follow in the footsteps of Collette Dinnigan and be invited to be part of the official Paris Fashion Week schedule.
LABEL: Livia Arena (Vic)
DESIGNER: Livia Arena
LOOK: Understated and relaxed
Livia Arena, who started her label in 2011, focuses on a clean aesthetic with quality fabrics sourced from Japan.
For her Foreigner Autumn-Winter 2014 collection, Arena felted mohair sourced from a goat farm far northern Victoria.
"I like to experiment with different techniques every season but also the end result is not supposed to be invasive or overpowering," she says.
"It's meant to be just really clean with beautiful fabrics and also quite sporty and playful.
"I don't like anything that's too fussy or trend-driven."
Arena's clothes strike a fine balance between streetwear and pieces you can dress up with heels.
For example, Arena likes to team silk basketball shorts with boots for a street look but pairs them with heels for an irreverent evening look.
Arena's recent travels to the Middle East, China, Japan and Italy informed Foreigner, which features a mohair overcoat, gathered organza skirt and a punch lace dress.
The colour palette ranges from cerulean and soft blues to camel and dark purple.
"The colour palette was informed by those washed-out cityscapes and the idea of walking in winter and the blues and the greys," she says.
"It's meant to be quite comforting - the things that we hold within ourselves that comfort us in foreign places."
LABEL: Haryono Setiadi (NSW)
DESIGNER: Haryono Setiadi
LOOK: Graphic, painterly
Haryono Setiadi started designing for himself in 2009 after working with several other Sydney fashion houses.
He changed his brand from An Ode To No One to his full name in 2012 and continues to create graphic clothes from natural fabrics such as wool, cotton and silk.
"This season I'm looking at using a few different techniques to apply the art-work onto the garment," he says.
"Instead of printing, this season I used embroidery."
LABEL: Christina Exie (Vic)
DESIGNER: Christine Exie
LOOK: Minimalist, futuristic
The winner of Project Runway in 2012 continues her minimalist look with her Olum Autumn-Winter 2014 collection.
Juxtaposing black with white, Exie describes Olum as both the end of an era and the beginning of something new.
"It is the end of a past chapter in my personal and business life," she says.
"I plan to reinvigorate and rejuvenate the brand into something newer - a different take on it."
With the possibility of opening up a web store, Exie says she may broaden her focus (currently the luxury end of the market) and include more accessories and basic garments that customers would be more comfortable purchasing online.
Olum features several overcoats, ranging from a long, loose-fitting "funeral" coat teamed with a "departure" black skirt, to an ivory "styx" coat with a "coffin" black dress.
LABEL: Pageant (Vic)
DESIGNERS: Amanda Cumming and Kate Reynolds
LOOK: Sports luxe
Cumming and Reynolds both graduated from RMIT with fashion design degrees. After working for PAM, styling film clips and living in London, they began Pageant about three years ago.
The pair are interested in celebrating form by creating sporty separates that can be worn from day to night.
Their comfortable pieces are made from unusual fabrics that are not necessarily associated with casual sportswear.
"We are exploring pieces of clothing that already exist but recontextualising and reconfiguring them in a way with really high-quality fabrications," Reynolds says.
A scrunchy dress, cosy knitted bomber and puffer scarf feature in their Fiber Optics Autumn-Winter 2014 collection.
Reynolds and Cumming source most of their fabrics from Japan and work with nylon, polyester, coated denim cotton, jersey, textured knit jacquard and mesh.
They also use a fabric with a memory finish so customers can manipulate a piece to suit their individual body shape.
The Fiber Optics colour palette ranges from grey and charcoal marle, to soft pink, pale plum and orange, through to slick black, cobalt blue and matt silver.
Cumming and Reynold plan to open a web store this year.
LABEL: bul (Vic)
DESIGNER: Virginia Martin
LOOK: Streamlined, elegant
The designer behind bul, Virginia Martin, was inspired by a recent trip to Japan for her Autumn-Winter 2014 collection.
Although it's a slightly more structured look than her last spring-summer offering, influenced by the New Zealand landscape, Martin still uses natural fibres.
She plays with light and dark, sheer and opaque, and references a a glass house strapped with painted wood, just outside Tokyo.
The colour palette is bright red, cream, navy, black and neutrals.
"The red is actually inspired by a Spider Lily flower, which heralds the beginning of autumn in Japan," Martin says.
"In Japan they have got such a rich heritage and an amazing culture, with so many different components to it, and I really wanted to take something that was so rich in what they do and transform that into something I do."
Martin has been running bul for more than three years, hopes to eventually make the brand international but wants to cement it locally first.
"I have seen other designers try and do it too quickly and not succeed, so I just really want to make sure that I've covered Australia and then I'll start with overseas."
* The Tiffany & Co National Designer Award will be presented on March 18. The Melbourne Fashion Festival runs from March 17 to 23, 2014.
