Last night's Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation award winners -- including Bibhu Mohapatra and Mandy Koon (womenswear), The Lake & Stars (lingerie), Pamela Love (jewelry), M. Patmos, and Tara St. James (sustainable design), Cushnie et Ochs, and Native Son (menswear) -- are already a buzz-worthy among fashion insiders.
But if alumni presenters and attendees including Prabal Gurung and Joseph Altuzarra are any indication, you'd do wise to scoop their wares now before they start flying off shelves -- and up the price point scale -- in the coming seasons.
Celebrity designer Robert Verdi summed things up with this to say of lingerie category winners The Lake and Stars, who he referred to as "naughty intellectual":
It’s Madonna 2.0 but it’s born of the Lady Gaga era now, and girls and women all want to feel original and unique and powerful but still sexy, and I think they’re bringing that back...What they do is like a private school version of Lady Gaga.
Shop them in limited runs at stores ranging from Steven Alan to Saks Fifth Avenue now. We're betting they'll be the headline labels soon enough.
LIST: Shop the 2011 Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation Winners
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