Superbowl of Fashion Industry Raises Over $1.4 Million and Awards Over Half A Million Dollars to Nation's Top 110 'Empire State Of Mind' Fashion Students

NEW YORK, Jan. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund (FSF) raised over $1.4 million Wednesday, January 13th at the 2010 FSF Geoffrey Beene Fashion Scholarship Awards Dinner. One hundred and ten of the nation's top fashion students were awarded $670,000 in scholarships. The 110 students, comprised of the FSF Class of 2009 and 2010, were given $5,000 each. Eight of the premiere students from the FSF Class of 2009 walked away with $120,000 graciously provided by the Geoffrey Beene Gives Back® Foundation.

Hosted by style expert and fashion personality, Mary Alice Stephenson, 110 fashion students from across the country were introduced before a sold out crowd at Cipriani Forty Second Street, New York City. These students made their grand entrance to Jay Z's "Empire State of Mind", much to the delight of 790+ leading executives in attendance from the fashion and beauty industries.

"It was the Superbowl of the fashion industry," proclaimed President of the FSF Ken Wyse. "So many of the key players were there from retail, wholesale, menswear, womenswear and children's wear, as well as the fragrance and cosmetics industries. Clearly, the energy and excitement was stimulated by an extraordinary group of 110 young scholars who will provide the fuel, energy and vision for the future. It was inspirational, elegant and most importantly made all of us feel good about the future of our industry."

Honored at this year's FSF Dinner Gala were three leaders of industry chosen for their commitment to education and positive impact and influence on the business of fashion, beauty retail, wholesale and design. The 2010 FSF Honorees included Margarita Arriagada, Senior Vice President of Merchandising at Sephora, Thomas A. Kingsbury, President & CEO of Burlington Coat Factory and Robert L. Mettler, former Chairman & CEO Macy's West. Mettler, a noted philanthropist, was the FSF's second ever Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient. Arriagada, Kingsbury and Mettler were each presented their honors by David Sultineau (President & CEO, Sephora USA), W. Paul Jones (CEO, Shopko), and Jeff Gennette (Chief Merchandising Officer, Macy's Inc.) respectively.

This year's FSF Geoffrey Beene National Scholarship Award winners included: Alexandra Dumas (Washington University in St. Louis), Ashly Juskus (Fashion Institute of Technology), Kasia Wisniewsky (Pratt Institute) and Lisa Cohen (University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School) each winning $25,000. The 4 remaining finalists including: Alana Abisdris (Syracuse University), Becca Murrow (Indiana University), Kiara Walker (Parsons the New School for Design) and Michael Lin (Otis College of Art and Design) each won an additional $5,000. All 8 finalists were featured in a Madwood Studios produced video presentation created with Flip Video UltraHD™ cameras.

Event highlights included: the highest recorded attendance rate for a charity event in Cipriani history, performances by Young Arts' Ernest Felton Baker II and Grace Weber and Cipriani Forty Second Street's first ever music video entertainment ensemble featuring artists like: Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross, George Michael, Barbara Streisand and The Jackson 5, created by Michael Flutie and Madwood Studios for dinner and dessert entertainment.

The 2010 FSF Geoffrey Beene Fashion Scholarship Awards Dinner was the second highest revenue-generating event in the FSF's seventy-three year history and was graciously underwritten by Geoffrey Beene Gives Back®.

Interested media that would like to request more information or hi-resolution images from the event's coverage provided by Patrick McMullan, WireImage, and Guest of a Guest are invited to contact Workhouse Publicity, CEO Adam Nelson directly by telephone at 212.645.8006 or via email at [email protected].

THE YMA FASHION SCHOLARSHIP FUND

The YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund (FSF) is a national non-profit association consisting of influential members of the fashion community, dedicated to promoting education of the fashion arts and business by granting scholarships to talented students and facilitating internships, mentorships, and career programs. Rooted in an organization formed more than 70 years ago in the apparel and textile industries the FSF has been granting scholarships to students in those businesses since 1971. Over the last several years, the fund has quickly become one of the largest, most important grant organizations in the apparel business, having awarded more than $6 million to over 700 students since the scholarship program has been in place. Previous FSF honorees include: Zac Posen, Mindy Grossman, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Geoffrey Beene, Tom Murry, Tim Gunn, David Chu, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, and Kenneth Cole, Jeff Gennette, Dr. Joyce Brown, Jay Baker, etc. The Fashion Scholarship Fund is proud of its work and wholly committed to its mission of recruiting, nurturing and cultivating the best students from its member schools so they become the next generation of leaders in the fashion industry. For more information, please visit http://fashionscholarshipfund.org.

GEOFFREY BEENE, LLC  

GEOFFREY BEENE, LLC, the designer brand, is a unique business model of corporate giving. 100% of net profits from GEOFFREY BEENE, LLC fund philanthropic causes. Today, the GEOFFREY BEENE Foundation and the GEOFFREY BEENE brand have contributed over $145 million in value to a variety of medical causes including over $106 million to the GEOFFREY BEENE CANCER RESEARCH CENTER at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.  Additional charitable support goes to its Alzheimer's Initiative, signature CFDA and YMA Fashion Scholarships, Veterans' support and protection of animals.  In partnership with Macy's, GEOFFREY BEENE supports the GoRed for Women campaign, and the welfare of women and children through the Family Violence Prevention Fund. www.geoffreybeene.com

MADWOOD STUDIOS

Madwood is a NYC based studio that builds creative content for brands and produces content with marketers for broadband and broadcast. For all Madwood inquiries please contact Michael Flutie @ 212.226.7001 www.madwoodmedia.com

MICHAEL FLUTIE'S OFFICE

The YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund is represented by MFO, a Talent Brand Management Firm. For all FSF inquiries please contact Sean Ramsay @ 212.226.7000. www.michaelflutie.com

SOURCE The YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund