Ahead of the Dorchester Collection Fashion Prize final on 29 October, ELLE is showcasing each of this year’s mind-blowingly talented finalists in the most personal way we could think of: by exclusively revealing their application videos.

Now in its fourth year, the Dorchester Collection Fashion Prize – a £25,000 boost for one burgeoning fashion business – is a serious award for serious designers, and the stakes have never been higher.

For 2013, the net was widened to include applicants from countries where Dorchester Collection hotels operate – so the US, France, Italy and Switzerland, as well as the UK – and bespoke panels of judges for each country (the UK contingent included Daniella Helayel, Caroline Issa, Stephen Jones, Nicholas Oakwell, Rupert Sanderson, and Stephen Webster) were appointed to whittle down the applicants to a shortlist of four.

Step forward Emilia Wickstead, Fyodor Golan, Barbara Casasola and Huishan Zhang.

A new element to the application process this year was the submission of a one-minute video, in which entrants were asked to present their ‘collection, inspiration and design philosophy’. This was to be a no frills affair – camera phones most definitely allowed – and the results are, well, gorgeous.

In the first of our weekly series of four, West London-based Emilia Wickstead (who you might know as a go-to of a certain stylish royal mum…) shows the panel her atelier and explains why she should be considered.

Think Emilia should win? Tweet us your thoughts @ELLEUK, using #DCFashionPrize.

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