DALLAS, May 18, 2007/ FW/ --- On Friday, April 27, 2007, under a tent reminiscent of the 7th on Sixth tents in Bryant Park during the New York fashion season, the Academy of Art University School of Fashion held its 2007 graduation fashion show and award ceremony honoring Loulou de la Falaise, Robin Givhan and Zac Posen.

With over 1500 people in attendance, fashion icon Loulou de la Falaise, the only Pulitzer Prize winning fashion editor, Robin Givhan of The Washington Post, and fashion designer Zac Posen, received their Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters for their contribution to the world of Art and Design from University president Dr. Elisa Stephens.

Accepting her Honorary Doctorate, Paris-based designer and fashion icon Loulou de la Falaise said, “I am very honored to get this degree from this wonderful University. I have seen all the work of the students today and I am really impressed by the professionalism, the discipline, the inventiveness and the creativity. I think you are all really lucky to have such wonderful teachers who will give you self-confidence for the rest of your lives.”

“Fashion takes a lot of guts and its difficult to have a lot of guts if you don’t have self-confidence. I think you are all really really lucky and you all have worked really really hard and I congratulate you all. You have given me this degree but I am sure that you’re the ones who deserve it more than me,” de la Falaise added.

Speaking as a journalist, Robin Givhan, the only Pulitzer Prize winning fashion editor said, “I am much better at putting my thoughts into print than saying them in this setting.”

“I would love to thank you all so much and say that I am absolutely awed by the level of creativity that I see here as it takes my breath away. I am absolutely thrilled [with] the honor of being here and being able to share in this and take it back with me to New York and just sing the praises of the kind of creativity that happens in San Francisco,” Givhan added.

Cracking a joke, New York-based designer Zac Posen started with, “Dr. Posen I presume!” bringing smiles to the audience.

Continuing, Posen said, “Its been an honor to be here this evening. It’s been an incredible journey. I am the same age as many of the students I have seen and I have been utterly blown away. The poise. The exuberance. The creative passion that I saw was unbelievably inspiring. You are all on the right train of thought. You just have to keep going. Keep dreaming and build it wherever you go. Congratulations!”

The presence of honorees Loulou de la Falaise, Robin Givhan and Zac Posen gave the students to learn from fashion industry leaders. But, it was still the students’ ‘show’! Hence, it was the their creations that took center stage on the runway.

The School of Fashion promotes its recent graduates with a show of this magnitude to showcase the young designers’ debut collections to an audience of local, national and international media, fashion industry and store executives, recruiters, designers, society, and HR executives from international companies, to help secure job placement and launch their careers.