Donna Karan has been honoured for her charity work in Haiti at the Clinton Global Citizen Awards in New York. Karan, who designed the award herself, was presented with the trophy by Bill Clinton on Monday night.
The designer had already planned to take to the stage to discuss her relief efforts in Haiti, reports WWD, but was surprised when she was asked to return to the podium in order to accept her award.
"Every other year that we've given these awards we always have a different designer. But, we intend for this award to be around as long as we're giving out awards," said Clinton. "So I think we should give an award to Donna Karan. I believe that it is overwhelmingly because of her that the arts and crafts centre of the Haitian economy may be the first sector that is actually doing better today than it was before the earthquake and I will never be able to thank her enough."
Karan worked with Haitian artisan Karine Villard and Nadja Swarovski of Swarovski on the philanthropic work in the Caribbean country, through her own Urban Zen foundation.
"Last night was extraordinary," said Karan yesterday. "President Clinton inspires everything I do, from my work in Haiti to Urban Zen. I was [happy] to design the Global Citizen Award, but I was completely shocked when President Clinton presented me with the award at the end of the evening. I am humbled and honoured."
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