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Gen Art Styles Names Winners of 2008 Competition

Now in its tenth year, the 2008 Gen Art Styles competition presented the next crop of emerging fashion talent at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York on Monday night, May 19, before a panel of judges that included fashion designers Victoria Bartlett and Marc Ecko among others, Sak's Fifth Avenue Fashion Director Michael Fink and Designer & Agent's founder Barbara Kramer.

Narrowed down from an international pool of over 800 entries, 25 designers competed in 5 categories for a $5,000 grand prize in each category. A runway competition, a video presentation and an exhibition of fashion sketches formed the basis of the various categories for judging, with results tallied up live, in the midst of the show.

An entertaining and irreverent Robert Verdi, host of E!'s "Fashion Police," emceed the show. His running gag all night long at the Botox-sponsored event was a slight modification to the titles of each design award category: "And the Nicole Kidman Botox Design Vision Award for Ready to Wear goes to..." Verdi joked.

Winners included Yujin Song in the women's "Ready to Wear" category for her futurist silk dresses with neon Photoshop prints, Timothy Franklin in the "Menswear" category for easy casual-meets-dressy grey, white and black fall/winter basics, Ninaki in the "Accessories" category for sculptural gold rings, Marie Potesta in "Avant Garde" for a her innovative and chic black and white intarsia knitwear and leggings and Louisa Parris in "Eveningwear" for diaphanous color block gowns.

A sixth award, the Tone Skincare Fashion Vision Award for Radiance, a $10,000 prize given to the designer best interpreting the Tone brand's theme, "Radiance," through sketches and text, was awarded to Jolibe.

Gen Art is well-known for launching the careers of some of fashion's best rising talents today, including Rodarte, Peter Som, Cloak, Loden Dager, Duckie Browne and Sari Gueron.

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