ARMANI RECEIVES FIT’S FIRST AWARD FOR GLOBAL FASHION LEADERSHIP

New York, NY, May 7th, 2008 - The Couture Council of The Museum of FIT honored Giorgio Armani with its first award for Global Fashion Leadership. Glenn Close presented Mr. Armani with the crystal obelisk designed by Swarovski at an intimate luncheon at the Hearst Tower on May 6, underwritten by Swarovski. The Couture Council supports the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City’s only museum of fashion.

Dr. Joyce F. Brown, president of FIT, said, “For an institution with global reach and whose students span the world, it gives FIT great honor to present our museum’s first global fashion leadership award to Giorgio Armani who personifies style and sophistication internationally.” Elizabeth Peek, a trustee at FIT and also co-chair of the Couture Council, noted that “Giorgio Armani has had an enormous influence on how women dress; we are delighted to acknowledge his great contribution to fashion.”

Glenda Bailey, editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar, who will host at Hearst, said "Mr. Armani has always stood for smart, sophisticated style, and I am delighted that Bazaar is co-hosting this lunch to honor him.”

"Swarovski is proud to partner with Giorgio Armani to donate a couture dress to the museum of FIT in honor of the Couture Council,” Nadja Swarovski said. “This dress was the first to feature the diamond leaf crystal, a Swarovski crystal especially designed and named by Giorgio Armani, and was the finale piece of Armani's Autumn/Winter 2007 show. We are honored to donate this piece of fashion history to the museum." The couture dress is covered with approximately 100,000 Swarovski crystals. Says Giorgio Armani, “Swarovski crystals bring a touch of magic to a dress, an ethereal quality, a luster which never fails to captivate the attention. It was therefore a pleasure to be asked by Helmut Swarovski to follow in the footsteps of Christian Dior in creating a new and unique crystal. I am thrilled to be honored with this significant award from such a renowned and respected institution as FIT. I immensely appreciate this acknowledgement.”

FIT, a college of art and design, business and technology of the State University of New York (SUNY), offers more than 45 majors leading to the AAS, BFA, BS, MA, and MPS degrees (www.fitnyc.edu). The Museum at FIT is the only museum in New York City dedicated primarily to the art of fashion. The museum collects, conserves, documents, exhibits, and interprets fashion. Exhibitions, which are both scholarly and artistic, range from Fashion, Italian Style to Madame Grès: Sphinx of Fashion to the upcoming Gothic: Dark Glamour. Housing one of the world’s most important collections of fashion and textiles, The Museum at FIT holds more than 35,000 garments dating from the 18th century, with particular strength in modern fashion, 30,000 textiles from the 5th century to the present, and 15,000 accessories, including 4,000 pairs of shoes. The Couture Council is an elite membership group of informed and enthusiastic individuals who help support the exhibitions and programs of The Museum at FIT.

The Armani Group is one of the leading fashion and luxury goods groups in the world today with 4,900 direct employees and 13 factories. It designs, manufactures, distributes and retails fashion and lifestyle products including apparel, accessories, eyewear, watches, jewellery, home furnishings, fragrances and cosmetics under a range of brand names: Giorgio Armani Privé, Giorgio Armani, Armani Collezioni, Emporio Armani, AJ | Armani Jeans, A/X Armani Exchange, Armani Junior, Armani Baby and Armani Casa. The Group’s exclusive retail network currently comprises: 73 Giorgio Armani boutiques, 12 Armani Collezioni stores, 140 Emporio Armani stores, 115 A/X Armani Exchange stores, 18 AJ | Armani Jeans stores, 7 Armani Junior stores, 1 Giorgio Armani Accessori, 1 Emporio Armani Accessori store and 25 Armani Casa stores in 46 countries. The Armani Group has also announced its intention to open a unique collection of luxury hotels and resorts in the world’s most important cities and destinations.

Sophisticated, elegant and provocative, Harper's Bazaar (www.bazaar.com) is the style resource for women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture. With authority and insider insight, Harper's Bazaar showcases the work of visionary stylists, expressive photographers and talented designers, covering what’s new to what’s next.

Founded in 1867, “America's first fashion magazine” also has 28 editions in countries around the world. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst Magazines, a unit of Hearst Corporation (www.hearst.com) and one of the world’s largest publishers of monthly magazines, with nearly 200 editions around the world, including 19 U.S. titles and 20 magazines in the United Kingdom, published through its wholly owned subsidiary, The National Magazine Company Limited. Hearst reaches more adults than any other publisher of monthly magazines (77.4 million total adults, according to MRI, Fall 2007).

Over a hundred years ago, in 1895, Daniel Swarovski, a Bohemian inventor and visionary, moved to the village of Wattens, Tyrol in Austria, with his newly-invented machine for cutting and polishing crystal jewelry stones. From these beginnings, which revolutionized the fashion world, Swarovski has grown to be the world’s leading producer of precision-cut crystal, for fashion, jewelry and more recently lighting, architecture and interiors. Today, the company, still based in Wattens, family-owned and run by 4th and 5th generation family members, has a global reach, with some 20,000 employees, a presence in over 120 countries and a turnover in 2006 of 2.33 billion Euros. Comprising two major divisions, one producing and selling loose crystals, the other creating design-driven finished products, the Swarovski corporation also includes four industrial brands, Tyrolit®, manufacturing grinding tools, Swareflex, for road safety reflectors, Optik, producing precision optical instruments and Signity, Swarovski’s brand for genuine and created gemstones. While Swarovski crystal, known by its product brand name CRYSTALLIZED TM- Swarovski elements, has become an essential ingredient of international design, Swarovski’s own-brand accessory, jewelry and home décor lines are sold through more than 600 Swarovski stores and concessions in all major fashion capitals, and the exclusive Daniel Swarovski accessories collection has become the company’s Couture signature. The Swarovski Crystal Society has close to 400,000 members worldwide, keen collectors of the celebrated crystal figurines, and in Wattens, Crystal Worlds, the multi-media crystal museum, has attracted over 7 million visitors since it was opened in 1995, as a celebration of Swarovski’s universe of innovation and inspiration, of crystal as the ultimate creative material.

Further information on all Swarovski collaborations can be viewed on www.swarovskisparkles.com and www.swarovskisparkles.tv

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