Jones New York Helps Women Achieve Goals Through $60,000 in Grants From the Jones New York Empowerment Fund

NEW YORK, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Jones New York, a division of Jones Apparel Group, Inc. (NYSE: JNY), awarded over $60,000 in grants to nine women as part of the JNY Empowerment Fund. The JNY Empowerment Fund was created to help women reach their personal, professional and community goals. The awards were presented at the first annual Jones New York Power Lunch hosted by former White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers and Vanity Fair magazine at The Campbell Apartment in New York City's Grand Central Station.

Beneficiaries received up to $10,000 each to launch and grow their businesses and help other women in their communities through philanthropy or networking opportunities. Jones New York partnered with Ladies Who Launch and Dress for Success to help facilitate the grant application process. Winners included:

DRESS FOR SUCCESS Grant Winners:

• Kyra Hickman, to launch a leadership initiative for young minority women in Queens, NY ($6,500)
• Sylvia Vitale, Project Director for Women's Military Civilian Connection in South Ozone Park, NY ($6,500)
• Ehiaghe ImoIoamen, owner of Spark General Cleaning Inc. in New York, NY ($6,500)

LADIES WHO LAUNCH Grant Winners:

• Deborah Olivo Frangui, owner of Aromatic Therapy LLC in Randolph, NJ ($10,000)
• Caroline Caniza-Levine, founder and operator of SixFigureStart career coaching firm in New York, NY ($10,000)
• Allison Jagitani, founder of Goji Gourmet in New York, NY($10,000)
• Dimity Kirwan, public school teacher and founder of Beyond Teaching in Norwalk, CT ($10,000)
• Meredith Gray, documentary film maker ($500)
• Emma Kirwan, founder of NGO Peaks over Poverty based in Norwalk, CT which aids poverty in mountain communities in Ecuador ($500)

Stacy Lastrina, Chief Marketing Officer of Jones Apparel Group, said: "Empowering women has been our mission for over 35 years and the JNY Empowerment Fund is one of the ways that we help women realize and achieve their goals. The grant recipients are a talented group with powerful ideas and the passion they have for their projects is inspiring."

The luncheon was a part of the Jones New York "Empowering Your Confidence" campaign, celebrating the brand's more than 35 year history of dressing women for success. This movement is inspired by the tremendous impact working women have had on all aspects of American life, and includes multi-faceted initiatives in media, networking and philanthropy, with national and local components. Learn more about the campaign and the Empowerment Fund winners at JNY.com/empowerment.

Notable attendees included: Dee Dee Myers, Kristin Chenoweth, Gail Simmons, Cheryl Saban, Jill Zarin, Countess LuAnn de Lesseps and Caroline and Dina Manzo.

Images from the event are available at: http://billyfarrellagency.com/home/event/258?page=4

About Jones Apparel Group, Inc.

Jones Apparel Group, Inc. (www.jonesapparel.com) is a leading designer, marketer and wholesaler of branded apparel, footwear and accessories. The Company also markets directly to consumers through its chain of specialty retail and value-based stores and through its e-commerce web sites. The Company's nationally recognized brands include Jones New York, Nine West, Anne Klein, Gloria Vanderbilt, Stuart Weitzman, Robert Rodriguez, Kasper, Bandolino, Easy Spirit, Evan-Picone, l.e.i., Energie, Enzo Angiolini, Joan & David, Mootsies Tootsies, Sam & Libby, Napier, Judith Jack, Albert Nipon and Le Suit. The Company also markets costume jewelry under the Givenchy brand licensed from Givenchy Corporation, women's footwear under the Dockers® and Dockers® Women brands and infants', toddlers' and boys' footwear (excluding girls' footwear) under the Dockers® and Dockers® Premium brands, licensed from Levi Strauss & Co., apparel and accessories under the Rachel Roy brand licensed from Rachel Roy IP Company, LLC, and Jessica Simpson jeanswear licensed from VCJS LLC. Each brand is differentiated by its own distinctive styling, pricing strategy, distribution channel and target consumer. The Company contracts for the manufacture of its products through a worldwide network of quality manufacturers. The Company has capitalized on its nationally known brand names by entering into various licenses for several of its trademarks, including Jones New York, Anne Klein New York, Nine West, Gloria Vanderbilt, l.e.i. and Evan-Picone, with select manufacturers of women's and men's products which the Company does not manufacture. For more than 35 years, the Company has built a reputation for excellence in product quality and value, and in operational execution.

About Dress for Success

Dress for Success is an international not-for-profit organization that promotes the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life. Since starting operations in 1997, Dress for Success has expanded to more than 100 cities in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the UK and the West Indies. To date, Dress for Success has helped more than 550,000 women work towards self-sufficiency. Visit www.dressforsuccess.org to learn more.

About Ladies Who Launch

The Ladies Who Launch company mission is to make entrepreneurship accessible to any woman with a project, dream or aspiration to start her own business and be successful. The company has a worldwide online community with resources, success stories, assessments, forums, and classifieds – all designed to help women entrepreneurs at all levels to be successful. The company has franchised Local Communities in cities across North America. More information can be found at www.LadiesWhoLaunch.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements contained herein are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  All statements regarding the Company's expected financial position, business and financing plans are forward-looking statements.  The words "believes," "expects," "plans," "intends," "anticipates" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.  Forward-looking statements also include representations of the Company's expectations or beliefs concerning future events that involve risks and uncertainties, including:

• those associated with the effect of national, regional and international economic conditions;
• lowered levels of consumer spending resulting from a general economic downturn or lower levels of consumer confidence;
• the tightening of the credit markets and the Company's ability to obtain capital on satisfactory terms;
• given the uncertain economic environment, the possible unwillingness of committed lenders to meet their obligations to lend to borrowers, in general;
• the performance of the Company's products within the prevailing retail environment;
• customer acceptance of both new designs and newly-introduced product lines;
• the Company's reliance on a few department store groups for large portions of the Company's business;
• the Company's ability to identify acquisition candidates and, in a competitive environment for such acquisitions, acquire such businesses on reasonable financial and other terms;
• the integration of the organizations and operations of any acquired businesses into the Company's existing organization and operations;
• consolidation of the Company's retail customers;
• financial difficulties encountered by the Company's customers;
• the effects of vigorous competition in the markets in which the Company operates;
• the Company's ability to attract and retain qualified executives and other key personnel;
• the Company's reliance on independent foreign manufacturers;
• changes in the costs of raw materials, labor, advertising and transportation;
• the general inability to obtain higher wholesale prices for the Company's products that the Company has experienced for many years;
• the uncertainties of sourcing associated with an environment in which general quota has expired on apparel products but litigation and political activity seeking to re-impose quotas have been initiated;
• the Company's ability to successfully implement new operational and financial computer systems; and
• the Company's ability to secure and protect trademarks and other intellectual property rights.

A further description of these risks and uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations can be found in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009, including, but not limited to, the Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Disclosure and Item 1A-Risk Factors therein, and in the Company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, such expectations may prove to be incorrect.  The Company does not undertake to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Jones New York

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