Saks Fifth Avenue Auctions Designer Dresses - Shopping - Fashion Style

<p>Saks Fifth Avenue is keeping the holiday spirit alive well into 2012 by auctioning off items used in the Christmas window displays of its Manhattan store, the proceeds of which will be donated to charity. The high-end department store recently auctioned off six exclusive designer dresses through CharityBuzz.com, with proceeds going to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in New York.</p>

<p>The dresses were one-of-a-kind designs created specifically for the stores holiday window display. Rather than just put the dresses up for sale after the New Year, it was decided to use the dresses to help a good cause.</p>

<p>Eleanor Banco, director of public relations and special events at Saks Fifth Avenue, New York explains, We thought that giving the public a chance to bid to own the dresses on CharityBuzz.com would be the perfect way to make the dresses available to a wide group of people, even though only one of each dress was created. The designers agreed that the proceeds of the sales should benefit charity.</p>

<p>Saks contracted 10 designers to create dresses that were used in the stores windows, each of which had its own theme. The design houses that participated included Alexander McQueen, Nina Ricci, Proenza Schouler, Stella McCartney, Haider Ackermann, Naeem Khan, Rag & Bone, Olivier Theyskens, Marchesa, and Erdem. From these, six of the dresses were chosen for the auction, which raised around $8,000 for the St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital.</p>

<p>The Erdem dress sold for $1,900, while the Stella McCartney and Proenza Schouler designs brought in $1,750 each.</p>

<p>St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital specializes on childrens catastrophic diseases. The hospital was founded in 1962 by entertainer Danny Thomas. Discoveries and advances made by researchers at the hospital have changed how physicians treat children with cancer. For example, the survival rate for the most common childhood cancer acute lymphoblastic leukemiahas gone from four percent before St. Judes was founded in 1962, to a current survival rate of 94.</p>

<p>Saks is well known for its philanthropic activities, such as its Key to the Cure campaign that benefits breast cancer research. The store has donated more than $33 million dollars to various local and national breast cancer research funds over the years, including their well-known charity shopping weekend. Other projects have included a limited edition designer t-shirt from Elie Tahari.</p>

<p>Banco adds: Saks works very hard to support a wide range of charities. Its a part of the Saks DNA.</p>

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