It was an evening filled with unique and talented designers, shopping, and well dressed industry insiders at Gen Art’s 2009 Styles Presentation and Awards Ceremony, held on December 2nd, 2009.

As I arrived at 7 West loft in Midtown, I was immediately greeted by  tall beauties who stood atop pedestals modeling beautiful and intriguing works of  from the 25 finalist from Gen Art’s international design competition.

From over 1,000 submissions, these finalist who were chosen by a committee consiting of leading fashion retailors and publications in addition to stylist, buyers and editors including ELLE Magazine’s Anne Slowey, received an opportunity to showcase their pieces and compete for accolades from five categories.

Unable to decide where to go first, I let my eyes do the walking.  I was instantly drawn to Tatiana Pogrebnyak (try saying that 5 times fast), who displayed two absolutely stunning black chiffon evening dresses with jewel encrusted asymetrical necklines and two of the sexiest and fashion forward leather space aged jumpsuits.

I took a quick spin about the venue to check out the Gen Art Shop NYC which was showcasing 50 emerging designers whose items were up for salem, but soon realized that the awards ceremony was set to begin and went to grab a seat.

I must admit I was a bit shocked as to how scarce the crowd was.  I found that the majority of the crowd, about 20 people (ok, maybe 30), were gathered in the back where I believe refreshments were being served.  I only saw people eating chips and drinking wine out of plastic cups and did not find myself to be even slightly inclined to get my own.  I sat impatiently waiting for the ceremony to begin and wondered how long it would take for the room to get full.  The “reserved” area was pretty bare and as I turned to look about the room, the only thing that had changed was that the refreshment crowd was now sitting down.

It was about 7:30 when the organizers gave up hope for any additional guest and so began the festivities.  Founder of Gen Art , Ian Gerard, came to the stage to introduce the Emcee of the evening, Tamsan Fadal.  Seriously, I felt like I was in a jr. high school classroom with a teacher who doesn’t know how to control her students.  People were talking throughout the entire presentation.  I was just waiting for a spit ball to go flying.  There were five awards to present and Tamsan did her best to get through it all as quickly and as painlessly as possible.

First was best women’s RTW , Whistle and Flute.  Designer Claude Grant took the prize for Menswear.  The Accesories winners were two women behind the label, Lady Gray.  Kim Berit, who unfortunately could not be in attendance, won the crown for evening wear, while Johan Ku scored the crown for Avante Gard.

They truly did save the best for last as the Taiwan native Ku gave the most memorable speech with a smile that spanned acrossed the entire room emphatically, thanking his mother who was back home.  The whole production took about 20 minutes and Ms. Fadal seemed to have a look of relief as she hurridly walked off the stage.

I wanted to take one more spin about the shopping area and scopped out some amazing jewelry from designers DANNIJO, Chris Habana and Ken and Dana Designs.  Nothing clothing wise stood out for me other than Nature vs Future with their funky coats and cute wearable dresses.

All the action was done and once I started to get that itch to spend I knew it was time to go.  Luckily, I was able to depart with my wallet still in tact and a goodie bag in hand.

– Jenaya