Ecco Domani announces emerging fashion designer awards

HAUS ALKIRE: Haus Alkire is a partnership between two artists, Julie Haus and Jason Alkire. Haus handles the majority of garment design, merchandising and textile procurement, while Alkire focuses on the colors and custom prints for each collection. The two collaborate to fuse their passions to create a cohesive womenswear collection. Haus is self-taught, and has been designing for over seven years. She is the designer behind Julie Haus, and through that company she has produced private label projects for Barneys New York and Anthropologie.

Prior to becoming a designer she was the editor-in-chief of Spoon, a luxury publication distributed by Time Warner. Alkire has been a photographer, painter and graphic designer for most of his life. He has been designing digital prints for the past six years. Previously, Alkire was an advertising executive and freelance photographer. He also served as the creative director over all of Spoon Media's properties, including Spoon magazine. Together the partners have a retail space on Broome Street in SoHo, the design of which was another collaboration between Haus and Alkire. In the shop clients can purchase ready-to-wear as well as the artwork used in the creation of the ready-to-wear.

SUNHEE: Sunhee was born in Seoul, South Korea. After graduating from FIT, she was recruited by Alber Elbaz to work at Geoffrey Beene, and went on to design for Anna Sui, Elie Tahari and Anne Klein. Sunhee is a recipient of the prestigious American Designer Critic Award. She launched her self-titled line for Fall/Winter 2011. In her designs, Sunhee strives to truly understand what makes women feel beautiful and confident.

TIM COPPENS: Tim Coppens was born in Belgium and graduated from the internationally acclaimed Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 1998. After graduating, he moved to Munich to design for Bogner. In 2004 he joined the Adidas headquarters in Germany to lead the conceptual development of their high-end men's performance. Coppens moved to New York in 2008 when Ralph Lauren recruited him as design director for RLX, which he helped transform into one of the most fashion forward concept brands within the line.

The Tim Coppens menswear line was launched in 2011 and can be characterized by graphic tailoring woven into classic pieces. He elegantly fuses functionality, derived from his technical-inspired background, within his designer pieces. The first fall 2011 collection was immediately picked up by Barneys. His Belgian training as a classic fashion designer, and his exposure to the most innovative technical apparel make a unique combination that forms the foundation of Tim Coppens.