The Empowering Imagination competition offers the top graduates of the Parsons BFA Fashion Design program the chance undertake Kering internships. Based on their thesis collections, the elements of design and fabric manipulation is judged, as well as how each student tells a story. Let’s meet the final 12 for 2015, who’ve displayed vision, aesthetic identity, and professional practice with a specific focus on luxury fashion.Jooyoung Kim A menswear designer from South Korea, Kim studied industrial engineering before fashion design. A tailor at heart, his employment in New York’s Garment District and internships at Thom Browne have helped develop his thesis collection. Big on razor-sharp suit jackets, Forties wide-legged trousers in silk-look, translucent fabrics with pinstripe and Prince of Wales checks feature in the offering.Xuan Zheng China's Xuan Zheng moved to New York to study photography at Parsons School of Design, before changing to fashion after one year. A lover of architecture, Zheng's thesis collection draws on the aesthetic of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. It explores the contradiction of futuristic textures with traditional silhouettes, and boasts a full collection of shoes, bags, and jewelry made from sustainable materials.Blair MooreAustralian Blair Moore studied business before moving to New York. Moore's cattle farm childhood inspires her passion for rich colors and natural textiles, especially furs. She has visited top furriers in Denmark to refine her craft and has interned with the likes of Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. Her thesis collection is a boxy, modern women's wear offering with oversized outerwear in muted hues of navy and black. Key fabrics include wool, canvas-look fabrics, denim, leather (used in utilitarian bags and knee high boots) and cottons.K’Yan YipK’Yan Yip is a luxury menswear label founded by Hong Kong-born, Canada-raised Michael Yip. Yip's designs create a fantasy or dream for the wearer, with a focus on outerwear as protection and security. The fluid, longline silhouettes and drape of the cloths come in wool and sheer fabrics, as well as embellished tops, creating an androgynous look at times. Essentially, the charcoals and blacks make it a masculine collection but with a sense of romanticism in the details. Haoran Li China's Haoran Li is also big on romantic design and storytelling. Li's women's wear collection, “Dyes of Shadow”, is inspired by culture and art in New York, with the use of petrol-hued textiles in neoprene-look shapes. Graphic prints and dyes in fabrics create illusions that appear galactic; pairing boxy sweaters over tassel-skirts and leather, sandal-heels for the effect of shadows.Jon Max GohGoh’s design philosophy stems from personal identity. The designer hopes that future generations to come will look back at his men's wear collection as a challenge to the notions of masculinity. His collection is deconstructed and exposes the design process, with lightweight cotton shirting (sometimes sleeveless) coming un-hemmed over woolen culottes and skirting. The palette is nude and muted, except for a few printed, oversized tops with floral leitmotifs. Siying QuTibet-born, China-raised Qu moved to America for fine arts, before enroling at Parsons. Qu's men's wear collection offers volume in fabric and intricate details. Incorporating retro and modern connotations, she adds youthful charm to her unconventional fabrication, which sees wool coats constricted into loose bows and check prints on bottoms under duffle coats, finished-off with leather shoulder panels. Manuel NuezBorn in the Dominican Republic, Nuez offers a women's wear collection that is fluid and draped. Wide-legged tailoring swishes out on flared trouser bottoms in woolen, silk-look fabrics, under cotton, sleeveless shirting. Raised by tailors and seamstresses, he aims to blend craftsmanship and tradition with sustainability for a Seventies take on smart casual. Yao YuNew Yorker, Yao Yu takes her architecture experience into her women's wear designs; offering shapes, structures and silhouettes that stand statuesque. With a specialization in pattern-making, Yu evokes the techniques of knitting, weaving, and printing - including heat press and silk screening - into her thesis line.Ethan HonHong Kong-born Ethan Hon takes his applied arts passion into his women's wear collections, challenging traditional sewing and cutting with alternative techniques and materials. Wool, silk and fur feature in his collection, in a black and white color palette that offers pleating in sheer fabric, Beetle Juice stripes and oversized, longline outerwear. Leonid BatekhinLeonid Batekhin was born in Moscow and studied international economics, before heading to New York. Passionate about his heritage, Batekhin explores the significance of color as an emotion. He is a fan of fostering innovation by working with other artisans, offering intricate, floor-sweeping weave-dresses and Russian red silks in asymmetrical silhouettes for dresses.Lucy JonesWales-born Lucy Jones designs women's wear for people with disabilities. Jones' wheelchair-friendly clothing is sports-inspired with pleating and construction allowing movement in joints like elbows and knees. Her color palette in heavily monochrome using textural and ribbed cottons for shirting with almost mechanical details like a robot.