NEW YORK, Jan 7, 2004/ FW/ --- Derek Lam, Jeffrey Chow, Libertine, Doo-Ri and Andrew Harmon received a boost from Italian wine manufacturer Ecco Domani, to realize their fashion dreams – a chance to show their designs during New York Fashion Week.

Each of them will receive $20,000 from the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation to assist them in showcasing their collections come February.

"The talent pool this year was at such a high level it was extremely difficult -- sometimes deadlockedly difficult -- to arrive at just five winners," commented Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation judge Marylou Luther, Editor at The International Fashion Syndicate.

The Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation new designer search received over a hundred applications this year from across the U.S. Submission criteria, developed specifically to encourage young design talent to apply, included questions about how many years applicants have been in the fashion business, and how many retail accounts they work with.

Applicants were also asked for strong references and were required to submit look books or photographs of their work. From the initial pool of applicants, 25 semi-finalists were judged on samples of their most recent ready-to-wear women's and men's collections.

The winners of the women's design category were selected by a distinguished committee of fashion insiders including Marylou Luther, Editor at The International Fashion Syndicate; Sally Singer, Fashion News/Features Director at Vogue Magazine; Kim Hastreiter, Editor-in-Chief & Publisher of Paper Magazine; Joan Kaner, Senior Vice President & Fashion Director at Neiman Marcus; Julie Gilhart, Vice President of Fashion Merchandising at Barney's; and Ruth Finley, Publisher of The Fashion Calendar. The men's category committee included Madeline Weeks, Fashion Director for GQ Magazine; Jay Bell, Buyer for Menswear Design at Barney's New York; and Michael Bastian, Fashion Director, Men's Store and Decorative Home, at Bergdorf Goodman.

"The Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation continues to grow each year and we're thrilled with both the response from the fashion community and the success of past winners, who have gone on to build strong careers in the industry.” says David Lane, Marketing Director for Ecco Domani Wines.

Past Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation winners include Zac Posen, Project Alabama, Palmer Jones, Proenza Schouler, Cloak, Vasseur Esquivel, Peter Som, Mark Kroeker, Tess Giberson and the design collective, As Four.