Gen Art returned this season with true style with their annual Fresh Faces in Fashion show, the largest and most credible presentation of rising fashion designers in North America at the Grand Ballroom of the Manhattan Center. The program featured Spring 2012 collections from women’s ready-to-wear designers ace & jig, ANN YEE, EIGHTEENTH, JENNIFER CHUN, SUNGHEE BANG, and WILLIAM OKPO, among others. Gen Art is widely recognized for debuting breakout designers such as Zac Posen, Phillip Lim and Rebecca Taylor—with this year’s show promising to expose the next generation of talented young designers.
One of the major partners in this initiative was Palladium Alliance International, an emerging metal. Celebrities in attendance who dazzled in Palladium jewelry at the runway show included Gossip Girl's Kelly Rutherford (who paired her Cynthia Rowley dress with a bracelet and earrings from Andrew Meyer's Palladium Collection and a ring from Zeghani's Palladium Collection) and Erika Christensen (who wore a cuff from Noelle Leone's Palladium bracelet). Christensen kicked off the show by announcing a competition tied to Palladium Alliance International where Gen Art accessory designers would be tasked with designing a unique capsule collection of six jewelry pieces in palladium with the winner having their new line featured in a national ad campaign and put into production and sold through a partnership with Gemvara. "This lightweight, naturally white and luxurious precious metal is the quintessential element of style," said Christensen. Meanwhile, Rutherford ooh'd and aah'd over the pieces and took quick mental notes of her favorites. "What I love the most about Palladium jewelry is that you can look sexy and elegant at the same time-a hard thing to pull off with jewelry because it's either one or the other!"
Location: Grand Ballroom
Manhattan Center
311 West 34th Street
New York, NY 10001
After Party: 404
404 10th Avenue
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