NEW YORK The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City was selected by M.A.C Cosmetics to benefit from its launch of a cosmetics collection based on the pop culture character Hello Kitty. 

The creations of internationally renowned designers, who were invited by M.A.C to create one-of-a-kind pieces inspired by the Hello Kitty collection, was auctioned on eBay with all proceeds going to the museum's Acquisition Fund.

The Acquisition Fund allows the museum to acquire garments for its permanent collection from up-and-coming design talent who cannot afford to donate garments to the museum.

Two M.A.C Hello Kitty designs by Katy England (a dress and a catsuit) have also been donated outright to the museum's permanent collection.

"Hello Kitty has always been a unique fashion icon, so we are delighted to acquire Katy England's Hello Kitty-inspired ensembles for the museum's permanent collection."

"We are also grateful to M.A.C Cosmetics and Hello Kitty for contributing the proceeds from their eBay auction to the museum's Acquisition Fund so that we may purchase other museum-quality looks from young designers."
Dr. Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at FIT

The ensembles, which use the Hello Kitty colors of black, grey, white, and pink and range from cocktail frocks to Kitty couture swimwear, have been designed by Blugirl, Catherine Malandrino, Charlotte Ronson, Dress33, Elie Saab, Emanuel Ungaro, General Idea-Bum Suk Choi.

Adding on the list of designers include, Giles, Hervé Léger by Max Azria, Kai Kühne, Kate Sylvester, Katy England, Manish Arora, Marchesa, Miro, Opening Ceremony, Qiu Hao, Rosa Cha, Ruffian, Sang Beg Ha, Shu-Chi Huang, Sinha-Stanic, Tadashi Shoji, The Blonds, threeasFOUR, Vicente Villarin, Yigal Azrouel, Zac Posen, and Zimmermann. 

"Since the inception of the brand, M.A.C's roots have always been in fashion,"

"We support both up-and-coming and established designers by providing makeup artistry for their runway shows or creating limited edition designer color collections."

"It was a natural fit to fuse two iconic brands with fashion, and give both M.A.C addicts and Hello Kitty-obsessed fans something that will keep them talking for a long time."
said John Demsey, group president, M.A.C Cosmetics.

The M.A.C Hello Kitty designs were showcased at a launch party held at Cedar Lake in New York City in February 2009.

Katy England's designs for the M.A.C Hello Kitty collection are currently on display in the lobby of The Museum at FIT.