NEW YORK -- Die-hard fashionistas can tell you the designer names behind hot fashion houses such as Balenciaga and Dior, but they would be hard-pressed to name the creative directors at Tiffany or Boucheron.

Jewelry occupies a second-class citizenship as accessory in the world of fashion, even though its designers are as talented and creative as those who create apparel. At the same time jewelry has become so bold, beautiful and beguiling that it often makes the clothes appear to be the accessories, the fashion industry has become more intentional about recognizing the often-marginalized genre. For every Zac Posen, they have come to learn, there is a Justin Giunta.

Posen, a young womenswear designer, has taken the U.S. fashion industry by storm over the past five years. And now Giunta, a Mt. Lebanon native and another 20-something designer, is attracting lots of attention with his five-year-old brand Subversive Jewelry.

The designs of Giunta (pronounced JUNE-tah) are so impressive and his potential so promising that he's been named one of seven 2008 winners of the prestigious Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation grants for emerging design talents. He's the first winner in the newly added accessories category and received a $25,000 award to help showcase his collection, which he plans to do toward the end of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

Giunta, 28, joins a list of past winners who have gained prominence and critical acclaim: Proenza Schouler, Peter Som, Rodarte, Thakoon, Derek Lam, Erin Fetherston and Posen, to name a few.

"Getting into jewelry was sort of a fluke," Giunta said Friday at a breakfast at Barney's in Manhattan to fete him and the other 2008 winners.

Always interested in the arts, he interned at the Mendelson Gallery in Shadyside while a student at Mt. Lebanon High School. After high school, he studied at the Pratt Institute in New York City and later transferred to Carnegie Mellon University. During his time there, he studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and won a highly competitive fellowship to study painting and fine art at Yale University.

In 2001, Giunta graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a bachelor's degree in fine arts and moved to New York City to pursue a career as an artist.

"The gallery scene was very difficult to break into," he recalled. "As a young person, it was impossible. I was never formally employed in New York."

So he became an entrepreneur, relying on his artistic and sales skills to support himself. But that September brought the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center, after which he went to Zurich, Switzerland for several months to work in theater costume design. Meanwhile, his paintings were being sold at the Mendelson and in Paris.

Upon his return to New York in 2002, Giunta applied for design jobs at numerous companies in the garment industry. When no one would hire him, he began making and selling chandeliers and T-shirts.

In 2003, an event occurred that would change his life.

He made a gem-adorned charm bracelet as a birthday gift for a friend who was a stylist. Word of mouth spread, and soon Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and the New York Times were talking about his striking jewelry. After the Times story, an executive at Barney's saw one of his necklaces and was swept off her feet. His pieces have appeared in numerous fashion week shows, including Yigal Azrouel, Chris Benz, Charlotte Ronson and Patrick Robinson, the new designer for GAP who at the time was designing Perry Ellis womenswear.

"I like collaborating with other designers because it pushes me out of my comfort zone," he said as he sipped a Bloody Mary at a Bryant Park cafe.

Giunta has come a long way since peddling his jewelry from a cart to East Village shop owners in 2003, and from the days when Barney's executives crowded into his kitchen to check out pieces laid on a table. He incorporated in 2004, opened an office near his Chelsea home and sells Subversive pieces in every Barney's store and 110 private boutiques around the world from Dubai to Hong Kong to Dress Circle in Shadyside.

Dress Circle owner Bonnie Levey met Giunta when he was a college student. She said she liked his "funky" jewelry designs, adding that two of his paintings hang in her home.

"I said, 'Justin, one day you're going to support us all.' He proved my prophecy correct. He's a Renaissance man, multitalented. So, of course, when he began Subversive Jewelry there was no doubt I was going to get in there and get it first. I truly believe in his genius. He is not a flash in the pan. And it's not just that he's talented, he knows how to connect with people."

Subversive pieces range in price from $400 to $3,200. Prices are highest for signature items, "super-exotic" jewelry, and embellished gloves and handbags.

"There's always a weight to my jewelry," he said. 'More and more' is my design philosophy. We have a pretty but aggressive aesthetic. Choosing the name was easy. It just alludes to my personality in every way."

Giunta, who hasn't owned a television set in 10 years, allows the dynamism of New York to inspire him. He is unpretentious but confident, and he said his rapid success with jewelry didn't shock him.

"It's never about making a quick buck in exchange for my integrity. It's a blessing to wake up every day and achieve what I wanted as a child."

Mary Alice Stephenson, a contributing fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar and spokesperson for the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation, described Subversive pieces as chic, edgy, affordable, eco-friendly and versatile enough to wear with everything from a red-carpet gown to blue jeans.

"They feel really cool and really now, at a time when a lot of jewelry designers are struggling to find what is fresh."