FIT to Honor Bobbi Brown with Honorary Degree

The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) announced beauty executive Bobbi Brown and shoe designer Christian Louboutin will take the stage as keynote speakers and will receive honorary degrees at FIT's 69th commencement exercises, set to be held May 22, 2014 at the Javits Center North in New York. Additionally, fashion industry executive and FIT trustee emeritus John J. Pomerantz will receive the President’s Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Bobbi Brown is the founder and CCO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, a New York Times best-selling author, and was recently named editor in chief of Yahoo! Beauty. In 1991, she arrived on the beauty scene with the launch of Bobbi Brown Essentials, a handful of ten brown-based lipstick shades created to fill a void in the market of simple, flattering, and wearable makeup. Today, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics is a global color cosmetics, fragrance, and skin care brand with a presence in more than 60 countries.

Shoe designer Christian Louboutin began his career as an apprentice at the famous cabaret Folies Bergères in 1980, creating designs for the music hall’s exotic dancers. The Museum at FIT and FIT’s Fashion and Textile Studies graduate students mounted "Sole Desire," the first exhibition of his work, in 2008—the same year Louboutin was ranked the most prestigious luxury shoe brand in a survey by the Luxury Institute. For summer 2014, the designer is lending his creative prowess to the company’s first beauty line, Christian Louboutin Beauté.

John J. Pomerantz, president of JJP Advisory, LLC, is former chairman and chief executive officer of Leslie Fay Company, Inc., New York City-headquartered manufacturer of women’s fashions sold nationwide. Pomerantz retired from Leslie Fay in 2000 after more than four decades with the company. He is a trustee emeritus of FIT, and was a director of its foundation from 1976 to 2010, serving more than ten years as chairman.

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