The Fashion Institute of Technology held its commencement exercises for all associate
and baccalaureate degree candidates in two ceremonies at Javits Center North on May
22, 2012.
Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipient, Doctor of Humane Letters: Leslie A. Blodgett ’85, Executive Chairman, Bare Escentuals, Inc.
Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipient, Doctor of Fine Arts: Davin Stowell, Founder and CEO, Smart Design
Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipient, Doctor of Fine Arts: Carolina Herrera, Designer and Founder, Carolina Herrera
Leslie Blodgett, executive chairman of Bare Escentuals, Inc., graduated from FIT's
cosmetics and fragrance marketing program in 1985. By 1994, she was CEO of Bare Escentuals,
transforming it into one of the country's leading prestige cosmetics companies with
the launch of bareMinerals, an award-winning line of mineral-based products. Her entrepreneurial
zeal led her to QVC which turned bareMinerals into the networks top-selling brand
and Ms. Blodgett into a household name. Under her leadership, and in one of the largest
cosmetics takeovers on record, the firm was acquired by Shiseido in 2010 for $1.8
billion on the condition that the popular Ms. Blodgett agree to remain as its public
face.
Davin Stowell
Davin Stowell is the founder and CEO of Smart Design, a leading global multidisciplinary
design firm that has revolutionized hundreds of everyday products from potato peelers
and measuring cups to camcorders and automobile instrument panels. With the OXO Good
Grips line he created in 1989, he introduced the concept of Universal Design in household
products, several of which are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern
Art. Honored in 2010 by the White House as a recipient of the National Design Award
for product design, his OXO line alone has won more than two dozen awards. His client
list includes such giants as Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett-Packard, World Kitchen, Yahoo
and Ford.
Carolina Herrera
Carolina Herrera, the fashion designer known for her elegance, exquisite taste and
sensibility, developed her internationally acclaimed line as a second chapter in her
life. At the age of 40, already a fixture on the International Best-Dressed list,
she opened her first design atelier and showroom on Seventh Avenue. Today, her global
label is consistently one of the most prosperous in the industry and includes bridal
wear, fragrances, menswear, handbags and shoes. Mrs. Herrera has volunteered her time
at FIT, serving as mentor and critic for fashion design majors and serves as a goodwill
ambassador for the fashion industry's international campaign against malnutrition.
