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Finalists for AOL Latino's online reality design contest, Fashionista, will be featured in separate webisodes on Friday before the winner is announced that day.

AOL Latino Preens For Fashionista Finale

Vicky Mendez, Anna Fong, and Claudia Diaz have a big day ahead of them. On Friday, their travels around New York City, and designs for a runway show, will be featured on AOL Latino as a trio of online shows, or webisodes.

Only one of them will nail the grand prize, designing a gown for a major show taking place in Los Angeles, Eduardo Lucero’s fashion event during this year’s Fashion Week.

After showing the three designers in action, AOL Latino plans to make the finale available. Judging by the mixed tense (past and future) interspersed in AOL's statement about Fashionista, it sounds like the winner has already been selected:

Each task was judged by a panel of experts including People en Español Fashion Director Kika Rocha, celebrity jewelry company executive Fabiola Beracasa and New York Fashion expert/designer Gustavo Arango. The panel focused on the contestant's creativity and originality as well as how well they integrated multiple fabrics and materials.

AOL's efforts to promote its services to the US Hispanic community demonstrates the company recognizes the importance of that growing segment of Internet users in America. Expanding its pool of visitors/ad viewers will be critical to AOL's growth beyond the Net access subscription model that defined the company for many years.