V1 EMBARGO: ELLE Next Gen Award Winners 2026

2026

Awards

The ELLE Next Gen Awards took place at The Press in Sydney on September 2, an event where we celebrated Australia's brightest emerging stars across fashion, film, beauty, music, art and literature. Sponsored by Swarovski, and with support from Uber Elite and Essential Parfums, nine winners across as many categories were announced to the 170-strong room. “The ELLE Next Gen Awards continue the brand’s 81-year global legacy as an incubator of emerging talent by spotlighting the young, bold, fascinating creatives who are pushing boundaries, embracing authenticity, and inspiring the next generation to see themselves as they are,” says ELLE's editor-in-chief Jessica Bailey. See all the winners below.

When Catherine Laga’aia was offered the role of Moana in Disney’s live-action remake, her reaction was “pure shock”. “I was hysterically laughing and crying,” she tells ELLE. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt that same feeling since.” Playing Moana, though, came easily. “I had said those lines thousands of times over, even before I was cast,” she says. “Stepping into her shoes felt familiar, like I was revisiting something rather than beginning it.” On set, Moana’s village of Motunui became a real home, and a reminder of purpose. “The villagers of Motunui represented the millions of people across the Pacific that I was doing this for,” Laga’aia says. Of course, working on a Disney-scale production wasn’t without its lessons. “Sometimes you need to look stupid,” she says. Next, she’s flipping the script with the upcoming drama Crashout. She plays Riley, who “sits at the other end of the teenage girl spectrum – messy, mean and raw,” she says. “I think it’ll be a shock to people’s systems to meet Riley if they first met me through Moana.”

Catherine Laga’aia

#ELLENEXTGEN

PHOTOGRAPHED BY JORDAN DRYSDALE; STYLED BY SOPHIA STAMELLOS; HAIR BY DARREN SUMMORS AT AP–REPS; MAKEUP BY CHERRY CHEUNG AT VIVIEN’S CREATIVE. PRODUCTION BY NICOLA HANRATTY. JORDAN DRYSDALE IS REPRESENTED BY SAUNDERS & CO

Winners

ELLE NEXT GEN ACTOR:

Walking in Chanel’s spring/summer 2026 show — Matthieu Blazy’s debut — made this issue’s cover star, Latahlia Hickling, feel like she’d finally arrived in the modelling world. “The whole experience was a whirlwind,” she says. “[It was the] first time I’d ever gone overseas, and just five days after I found out I was going, I was walking in the biggest show of the season. It was a very surreal pinch-me moment.” She’s since returned home to walk for a host of Australian labels including Aje, Ngali and Hansen & Gretel, but her approach to the relentless pace of fashion weeks is still refreshingly unbothered. “I honestly just take it day by day and do the best I can,” she says. Hickling now wants to do “the full show circuit and, of course, keep walking for Chanel”, and is eyeing the path of fellow First Nations model Charlee Fraser, whose pivot from modelling to acting she calls “really inspiring”. “I’d love to follow in her footsteps and pursue acting one day,” she reveals.

LATAHLIA Hickling

ELLE NEXT GEN MODEL:

Jacoténe was named one of Australia’s most exciting emerging musicians following the release of her first EP, Untitled (Read My Mind), in 2025, but even through this early validation, her creative process has stayed on course. “There’s something really freeing about creating without expectations,” she says. “That said, when recognition does come, it’s like fuel to the fire. It empowers me, humbles me and inspires me to keep creating.” Where Untitled (Read My Mind) was akin to an inner monologue, her newer songs reflect the growth she’s experienced since. “I feel like my latest releases, including ‘Aeroplanes’, are much more conversational and really tap into human connection and the person I’m becoming,” she says. “It feels like I’ve finally grown out of those school shoes that were once too big.” For now, Jacoténe is busy with her upcoming releases, but does have aspirations for musical collaboration in the future. “At the right time, I would love to blend worlds with [British rapper] Dave,” she says.

JACOTÉNE

ELLE NEXT GEN MUSICIAN:

Florence Baitio’s love of beauty “started with curiosity” and a fascination with how self-expression can transform not just someone’s face, but also “the confidence they carry”. Born in Africa and spending periods in refugee camps before moving to Australia, she was introduced to “so many different kinds of beauty. It’s shaped how I understand it now, as something rooted in authenticity and individuality,” she says. Modelling sharpened that philosophy, showing her that beauty is never one-size-fits-all. “Being part of an industry that’s evolving has allowed me to embrace the qualities that once made me feel different,” she says. A Chanel Beauty shoot remains “a moment that still feels surreal”, and she says relationships with L’Oréal Paris and Fenty Beauty made her feel “truly seen”. Meanwhile, working with Dior Beauty and Prada Beauty is still high on the wish list. Soon, she’s heading to London and Paris fashion weeks, continuing to build a community “where people who don’t always see themselves represented feel inspired to embrace themselves fully”.

FLORENCE Baitio

ELLE NEXT GEN BEAUTY STAR:

She’s already caught the attention of the Berlinale, The Criterion Collection and the Australian Directors’ Guild, but filmmaker Lucy Knox isn’t letting the accolades steer her creatively. “That kind of recognition is encouraging, but it’s so subjective,” she tells ELLE. “I have to really put the blinkers on and focus on the process.” Her work moves fluidly between films, documentaries, television and commercial directing, but each creative project always starts with two things: the character and a sense of friction. “There has to be something contrasting tonally or thematically — two things that shouldn’t align,” she explains. This desire for building tension in her work comes from growing up on gritty Australian films including Animal Kingdom and Wake in Fright, and a deep admiration for the local industry — which she believes “has never been afraid to confront uncomfortable aspects of humanity”. Knox hopes to extend this legacy, “but through a female perspective”, which she feels was often missing. “I love the messiness of being human,” she adds. “And I’d rather make work that sparks conversation than something designed to please everyone.” Knox is currently developing her debut feature — an adaptation of her short film Hot Mother, about a mum and daughter whose trip to a remote wellness spa turns into a fight for survival — with Toni Collette and Milly Alcock in the lead roles.

LUCY Knox

ELLE NEXT GEN FILMMAKER:

The relationship between the body, emotion and clothing has always fascinated and inspired Haluminous designer Hannah Teresa. “The way a garment can influence how we move, how we carry ourselves and how we experience our own identity — that has become the foundation of Haluminous,” she says. Teresa describes her label, which showed at Australian Fashion Week for the second time this year, as “nocturnal resortwear” and her early inspirations as “dark fairytales and gothic romance and the imagined world of Frankenstein’s bride”. Growing up between Korea and Australia has created a design sensibility that straddles two distinct styles. “Haluminous has always explored duality: softness and strength, romance and monstrosity, protection and sensuality,” she says, explaining how through fluid silhouettes, tactile fabrics and garments that balance “romance with wearability”, she hopes to add another emotional perspective to Australian fashion. Alongside Haluminous, Teresa founded Reborne, a space in Sydney she wished existed when she graduated. “What started as a boutique has become a creative community,” she says. “Watching designers return each season with stronger collections, greater confidence and growing businesses has been [so rewarding].”

HANNAH Teresa

ELLE NEXT GEN FASHION DESIGNER:

Great art runs through Camille Olsen-Ormandy’s veins, as the daughter of Dinosaur Designs founders and artists Louise Olsen and Stephen Ormandy, and granddaughter of artist John Olsen. But even coming from a family of creatives, she’s carved out a style all her own — though not by rejecting her roots. “I find that if you follow your own instincts, your style and sensibility will inherently be different,” she says. “I do, however, enjoy the moments when there’s a glimmer of reference to my family’s work.” That instinct earned her an Archibald finalist spot with her portrait of Heartbreak High’s Gemma Chua-Tran. Her medium of choice is oil paint, and she’s drawn to “traditional methods with contemporary themes”. Her love of fashion scratches the same itch, as “another canvas I get to express upon each day”. The Archibald nod has shifted something. “Seeing the exciting reception of being a finalist has shown me the opportunities that come with putting yourself out there,” she says, revealing she’s busy with new work for an upcoming Olsen Gallery exhibition.

CAMILLE Olsen-Ormandy

ELLE NEXT GEN ARTIST:

When Madeleine Gray released her debut novel, Green Dot, in 2023, it was met with rave reviews and won her a legion of celebrity fans, including Nigella Lawson, Gillian Anderson, Elizabeth Day and Pandora Sykes. It “changed my life entirely”, she says, but then she froze. Eventually, thanks to some tough love from her wife, Bertie Blackman, who told Gray to “be kind to yourself but also get over yourself”, she thawed and broke free of the sophomore slump with her latest, Chosen Family. Dubbed the queer book of the year, the novel interrogates everything we think we know about romance, lifelong friendship and whether platonic co-parenting can work when one person is in love and the other is not. For Gray, it was important to centre friendship as the prevailing love story in the novel. “Society rewards romantic love and devalues friendship, but friendship is the sustenance we all need to be fully invested in the world,” she says. “I think that love is attention. When you pay attention to someone, when you really care about everything they do, that’s love. As such, I am in love with my friends.” As for what comes next, Gray is working on a third novel she describes as “Germaine Greer meets Monty Python”.

MADELEINE Gray

ELLE NEXT GEN WRITER:

Before acting, Josh Heuston worked as a model and studied biomolecular science, a degree he admits is “kind of useless now, unless I ever play a scientist”. After the Heartbreak High reboot and Dune: Prophecy made him a household name in Australia, his role as brooding musician Justin Kohl in Off Campus this year catapulted him to international stardom. “We all knew it was gonna be a big one, but we didn’t think it was going to be like this,” he says, joking that now he “occasionally gets a free drink at a bar, which is cool”. In terms of future projects, he’s “just kind of rolling with whatever comes my way at the moment”. In the meantime, there’s his love affair with the fashion world. “Louis Vuitton and I have kind of had a little romance going on for, like, half a decade at this point,” he says, hinting that a couple of yet-to-be-announced roles are on the way.

JOSH Heuston

ELLE NEXT GEN ELLE MAN:

Catherine Laga’aia wears Lee Mathews top, $499, and skirt, $599; Swarovski earrings, $289, necklace, $760, bracelet, $690, and rings, on right hand, $389 (sold as a set), and on left hand, $199 (left), and $339.

Latahlia Hickling wears Christopher Esber dress, $1450; Swarovski earrings, $820 (top), and $410, necklace, $1150, and bracelets, on left hand, $640 (top), and $840, and on right hand, $760.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY JORDAN DRYSDALE; STYLED BY SOPHIA STAMELLOS; HAIR BY TRAVIS BALCKE AT SAUNDERS & CO; MAKEUP BY KIANA MEI AT ASSEMBLY AGENCY. PRODUCTION BY NICOLA HANRATTY. JORDAN DRYSDALE IS REPRESENTED BY SAUNDERS & CO

Jacoténe wears Zimmermann jumpsuit, $4500; Swarovski earrings (from top), $259, $289, and $309.

Florence Baitio wears Alaïa jacket, $2550, and jeans, $1990, from Marais; Lana Wilkinson shoes, $250; Swarovski earrings, $229 (top), and $309, bracelets, on right hand, $389, on left hand, $460 (top), and $580, and ring, $339.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY JORDAN DRYSDALE; STYLED BY SOPHIA STAMELLOS; HAIR BY WAYNE CHICK AT HART & CO; MAKEUP BY CARLY LIM AT HART & CO. PRODUCTION BY NICOLA HANRATTY. JORDAN DRYSDALE IS REPRESENTED BY SAUNDERS & CO

Lucy Knox wears Sportmax jacket, $2015; Swarovski earrings, $259, and necklace, $950.

Hannah Teresa wears Haluminous top, $420, pants, $560, and scarf, $320; Swarovski necklace, $760; Teresa’s own shoes.

Camille Olsen-Ormandy wears Valentino by Alessandro Michele jumper, bodysuit and skirt, all price on application; Valentino Garavani shoes, $1850; Swarovski earrings, $189, necklace, $640, bracelet, $590, and ring, $339.

Madeleine Gray wears Strateas Carlucci coat, $2800; Swarovski earrings, $590, and necklace, $4500.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY SOPHIE BROCKWELL. STYLED BY SOPHIA STAMELLOS. GROOMING BY MICHAEL BRENNAN AT ARTIST GROUP. FASHION ASSISTANT: BENJI LUIS. PRODUCTION BY NICOLA HANRATTY.

Josh Heuston wears Louis Vuitton jacket, $7100, shirt, $2160, pants, $2560, and tie, $430. Heuston’s own jewellery.