Futuristic and simple, but with more detailed fabrication. These are just some of the words used by Yona Yuliani Hutari to describe her designs which won her the Emerging Designer of the Year award (and cash prize of RM15,000) at the 2014 Mercedes-Benz Stylo Fashion Grand Prix last month.

The 21-year-old Indonesian fashion and retail design student at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology in Malaysia chose “salvage” as her concept for the competition as the theme was wearable art.

She specifically created three different outfits made out of used plastic bags, which she found around her house.

“It’s basically salvaging something that’s going to be thrown away. I feel that a lot of people tend to take advantage of plastic bags. It’s not going to biodegrade for hundreds of years and I feel that people seem to have overlooked that. So, that’s pretty much my concept with recycling,” said the environmentally-conscious designer.

Read the full article by The Star R.A.G.E and our short chat with Yona.

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