Ecco Domani Names Overland and Wang Among Winners

Ecco Domani, fashion’s most wide-ranging annual prize, has given awards to seven designers, including an Australian, a Norwegian and a Vietnamese, all of whom will present their latest ideas in next month’s New York Fashion Week.

The 2008 Fashion Foundation award recipients for women’s wear are Jose Ramon Reyes for Reyes, Wayne D. Lee for Wayne, Alexander Wang, Emma Fletcher for Lyell, and Elise Overland. In men’s wear, the winners are Loden Dager, while Ecco Domani’s debut accessories award went to Justin Giunta for Subversive Jewelry.

Each of the winning seven designers will receive $25,000 to present their collections in February in New York.

The awards mark the seventh year Ecco Domani, a major Italian wine producer, has backed up fledgling design talent. All entrants are required to be in the design business for no longer than five years and have at least one retail account.

“The Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation has become the benchmark for new and exciting talent discovery as each year the foundation unveils the next group of emerging designers to impact the fashion world,” said Patrick Coyle, Marketing Director for Ecco Domani wines.

The award has a justified reputation for percipience. Previous winners have included an impressive array of now recognizable designers, such as Zac Posen, Proenza Schouler, Peter Som, Doo.Ri and Derek Lam to name a few.

“The word domani in Ecco Domani is the perfect metaphor of what the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation awards represent to the American fashion industry: Tomorrow,” said judge Marylou Luther, editor at The International Fashion Syndicate.

“The emerging designers who will receive these awards are our future. They are our research and development team,” Luther added.

This year’s seven are a heterogeneous bunch. Alexander Wang, a native California now based in New York, combines the influences of his preppy conservative boarding school with an urban edge. Norway’s Elise Overland creates stagy garments for people who don’t mind attracting attention.

Australian native Emma Fletcher is behind Lyell, a feminine line with elements of vintage and innovative structure. While, Vietnamese-born Wayne D. Lee, is the brainchild behind Wayne, a collection that underlines her own background – she comes from a long line of tailors and believes that fashion is in her blood.

Jose Ramon Reyes, a native of the Dominican Republic, is the designer of Reyes, a range of luxury jersey separates, combining classic styles with fine fabrics and tailoring techniques.

Loden Dager is a design collective composed of Alexander Galan, Oliver Helden, Paul Marlow, Matthew Sandager and Melissa Vail. Their line draws inspiration from the masculine Forties, Sixties Mods and hippie Seventies.

The accessories winner is by Justin Giunta, a Pittsburgh native who has worked in various facets of art including painting, fashion, and industrial design, and now brings his talent to jewelry.

Besides Luther, The Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation awards were judged by Sally Singer, Fashion News/Features Director for Vogue; Kim Hastreiter, Editor-in-Chief & Publisher of Paper Magazine; Julie Gilhart, Vice President of Fashion Merchandising at Barneys; Ruth Finley, Publisher of The Fashion Calendar; Nicole Fischelis, Vice President and Women’s Fashion Director at Macy’s; and Ken Downing, Senior Vice President and Fashion Director at Neiman Marcus.

The men’s category committee included Madeline Weeks, Fashion Director for GQ Magazine; Jay Bell, Buyer for Menswear Design at Barneys New York; and Christopher Bollen, Senior Editor for V and VMan Magazines.

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