USPS Goes Fashion Forward With 'Project Runway'

USPS Goes Fashion Forward With 'Project Runway'

Letter Carriers Aid Contestants to Redesign Postal Uniforms

NEW YORK, Feb. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Working on Fashion Avenue has an entirely different meaning for the United States Postal Service today.

Letter carriers routinely deliver to thousands of addresses along Manhattan's venerable Fashion (Seventh) Avenue, home to design houses, chic salons, modeling agencies and businesses supporting the fashion industry.

Today, the focus expands from the delivery of mail to the delivery of new fashion standards, too, as one of the world's most recognizable uniforms undergoes a transformation as part of Bravo-TV's "Project Runway."

"Project Runway" gives aspiring designers a chance to break into the notoriously difficult fashion world. Supermodel Heidi Klum heads a panel of industry luminaries who serve as judges and industry mentors charged with selecting and molding the budding designers. Contestants are eliminated on a weekly basis based on their execution of the design challenges until only three remain to face-off with full lines on the catwalk at New York's Fall Fashion Week later this month. The winning designer will also receive $100,000 in seed money to help launch a fashion line in addition to a mentorship from the Banana Republic Design Team.

The five remaining contestants traded in the runway for a mail route in Hoboken, N.J., working with USPS workers to case, sort and deliver the mail before returning to the design studio to create "new" uniforms. The winning design and designer will be revealed tonight on Bravo.

Postal Service employees Becky Negich of Covington, KY, Betty Davis of Shinnston, WV, and Carol Brown of Brentwood, NY, trained the designers. Negich also served as one of three judges who determined the winning design. All three are Postal Service Ambassadors, an honorary position through which employees represent the USPS in advertising and public relations activities.

While there are no plans to adopt any of the Project Runway uniform re- designs, the Postal Service was honored to participate in a program that works to deliver a dream.

Since 1775, the Postal Service has connected friends, families, neighbors and businesses by mail. It is an independent federal agency that visits 142 million homes and businesses every day and is the only service provider delivering to every address in the nation. The Postal Service receives no taxpayer dollars for routine operations, but derives its operating revenues solely from the sale of postage, products and services. With annual revenues of more than $69 billion, it is the world's leading provider of mailing and delivery services, offering some of the most affordable postage rates in the world. The Postal Service delivers more than 46 percent of the world's mail volume -- some 206 billion letters, advertisements, periodicals and packages a year -- and serves seven million customers each day at its 37,000 retail locations nationwide.

Bravo is an arts and culture network featuring a variety of programs presented in an original and engaging way. Currently seen in more than 77 million homes, Bravo is the television destination for viewers who want creativity, experimentation and innovation. Bravo is a program service of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment, a division of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience. Bravo has been a NBC Cable Network since December 2002 and was the first television service dedicated to film and the performing arts when it launched in December 1980.


Source: U.S. Postal Service

CONTACT: U.S. Postal Service Media Relations, +1-202-268-2155

Web site: http://www.usps.com/


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