GENART'S 2012 FRESH FACES IN FASHION EVENT

New York Fashion Week is upon us yet again and with it, the return of GenArt’s Fresh Faces in Fashion event. Celebrating its 14th year, the Fresh Faces of Fashion event aims to present upcoming collections from emerging talent, providing a runway for each featured designer and their work. Past participants include designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy (Rodarte), Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock (Vena Cava), Zac Posen, and Phillip Lim. Of those auspicious few that have been selected, several have achieved further prestige by their receipt of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Emerging Designer Award.

This year, Fresh Faces in Fashion will present ready-to-wear collections from Anne Sofie Madsen, Amanda Lew Kee, Chloé Comme Parris, COMEFORBREAKFAST, Gretchen Jones, and A-Morir. In addition to the aforementioned labels, the event will also feature Kenyan designer Katungulu Mwendwa, as part of the GenArt Global program that launched this past spring.

Informing her invitation to participate in this event, Anne Sofie Madsen and her namesake label had previously made a splash at the 2010 London Fashion Week with the debut of her first couture-inspired collection. Having trained under John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, Madsen’s work maintains undeniable elegance and expert craftsmanship. Not only has she been praised by VOGUE’s own Hamish Bowles, but she was a featured designer in Issue 5 of Nu-Mode’ Magazine.

Joining Madsen in the Fresh Faces in Fashion event will be Toronto’s own Amanda Lew Kee, who first cultivated her brand at the tender age of 19. Since then, she has honed her masterful skills and offered them to the larger entertainment industry, producing custom garments for Shenae Grimes, Deadmau5, and Miss Piggy as well as designing the covetable looks that appear on HBO’s True Blood.

Also hailing from Canada, Chloé Comme Parris and its creators, sisters Chloé and Parris Gordon, derive the aesthetic of their label from “old-worldly ideas of adornment,” integrating them into a thoroughly modern look. Juxtaposing masculine with feminine lines, Chloé Comme Parris provides its wearer with the unique opportunity to remain effortlessly chic.

Characterized by its distinctly original prints, Antonio Romano’s label COMEFORBREAKFAST is quintessentially Italian. Combining simple and concise forms with its signature printed tops; the label achieves the delicate balance that defines a sleek and modern aesthetic.

Evoking an entirely different sensibility, Brooklyn-based designer Gretchen Jones draws upon her Southwestern roots to produce romantic shapes, produced in primarily natural materials. Domestically produced, Gretchen Jones and her eponymous label hearken upon an “earthy Americana,” one that is very much inspired by the faded colors and prints of the 1970s.

Exclusively producing accessories, A-Morir has become widely known for its ornate and hand-embellished eyewear. Created by Kerin Rose Weinberg, A-Morir expresses the designer’s passion for music and the rebellious nature it inspires. Her work has been commissioned and lovingly sported by Rihanna, Debbie Harry, and Snoop Dogg, amongst many others.

As the first representative of the GenArt Global initiative, Katungulu Mwendwa has followed an entirely disparate path to New York Fashion Week. Evolving from the traditional culture and aesthetic of her native Kenya, Mwendwa creates practical garments that are identifiable by their unique shape and wear. Experimenting with varying patterns and textures, Mwendwa conceives her work to not merely be fashion, but wearable art.

Moroccanoil will be the presenter of the 2012 GenArt Fresh Faces in Fashion event. The event will be held at 5:00 pm on Sunday, September 9 at RUNWAY @ Pier 57, located at 25 Eleventh Avenue in Manhattan.